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WALL  STREET 

SPECULATION 


ITS  TRICKS 


ITS  TRAGEDIES 


A  LECTURE 


FRANKLIN  C.  KEYES,  LL.  B., 

OF  THE  NEW  YORK  BAR 


Proverbs. — "  He  that  hasteneth  to  be  rich  hath  an  evil  eye,  and  considereth  not 

that  poverty  shall  come  upon  him." 


COLUMBIA  PUBLISHING  CO., 
123  Main  Street,  Oxeoxta,  N.  Y. 
1904. 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


Wall  Street  Speculation 

ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES 


A  LECTURE 


BY 


FRANKLIN  C.  KEYES,  LL.  B., 


OF  THE  XEW  YORK  BAR 


Proverbs. — "  He  that  hasteneth  to  be  rich  hath  an  evil  eye,  and  considereth 
not  that  poverty  shall  come  upon  him." 


COLUMBIA  PUBLISHING  CO., 
123  Main  Street.  Oneonta,  N.  Y. 
1904. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


http://archive.org/details/wallstreetspeculOOkeye 


Wall  Street  Speculation 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


PART  I -ITS  TRICKS. 


I. 


ALL  Street  speculation  is  the  most  stupendous 


V  V  game  known  to  the  world  of  chance;  as  com- 
pared with  it,  the  game  at  Monte  Carlo  pales  into 
utter  insignificance;  in  no  other  game  are  the  stakes 
so  high,  is  success  so  transitory  and  failure  so  over- 
whelming. It  is  a  game  in  which  the  wealth  of  Croesus 
changes  hands  in  a  single  hour,  a  game  in  which  a  few 
manipulators  behind  the  scenes  pile  up  millions  on  top 
of  more  millions  year  after  year ;  but  in  which  the  vast 
majority  of  the  outside  public,  who  tamper  with  it,  go 
to  financial  and  often  to  physical  and  moral  ruin. 

Many,  who  are  unacquainted  with  Wall  Street 
methods,  regard  speculation  in  stocks,  on  a  margin, 
as  legitimate  business ;  this  however  is  an  error,  which 
we  may  as  well  acknowledge  first  as  last ;  it  is,  as  I  say, 
a  game,  run  by  Wall  Street's  millionaires  and  multi- 
millionaires, who  since  the  organization  of  the  Stock 
Exchange  have  succeeded  in  filching  from  the  pockets 


[5] 


6 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


of  the  general  public,  without  giving  any  equivalent 
whatever,  untold  millions. 

The  public's  annual  average  of  loss  to  Wall  Street 
has  usually  been  estimated  in  former  years,  at  $100,- 
000,000  per  annum;  but  owing  to  the  more  recent  en- 
terprising methods  of  the  "  Street,' '  in  manipulating 
the  game,  this  estimate  is  now  far  too  small,  as  we 
shall  see. 

Beginning  with  September,  1902,  we  witnessed  for 
over  a  year  thereafter  an  almost  continuous  decline 
in  the  stock  market,  a  decline  manipulated  by  the 
Standard  Oil  party  and  largely  superinduced  and 
made  possible  by  the  dishonest  organization  and  over- 
capitalization of  trust  properties  by  the  so-called 
"  great  captains  of  industry."  These  corporations 
were  not  only  overcapitalized,  until  the  ciphers  ran  out, 
but  were  bled  of  vast  sums,  generally  by  their  organ- 
izers, for  underwriting  their  securities  or,  in  other 
words,  for  unloading  their  stocks  and  bonds,  at  in- 
flated prices,  upon  the  unsuspecting  public. 

On  this  decline,  the  shrinkage  in  market  value  of 
stocks  and  bonds  on  the  various  exchanges  amounted 
to  the  unprecedented  sum  of  approximately  three  bil- 
lion dollars;  and  the  proportion  of  this  vast  amount 
fleeced  from  the  public  in  cold  cash  is  so  large,  that 
the  public's  annual  average  of  loss  is  now  certainly 
far  beyond  the  one  hundred  million  dollar  mark. 

The  general  public  seldom  have  any  opportunity  to 
become  familiar  with  the  inside  workings  of  Wall 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


7 


Street  speculation,  as  it  really  is,  except  through  an 
expensive  personal  experience;  but  by  the  time  most 
people  have  learned  enough  through  personal  experi- 
ence to  make  money  in  Wall  Street,  their  experience  is 
all  the  capital  that  they  have  left,  and  this  alone  makes 
rather  a  light  margin,  with  which  to  operate  in  stocks. 

Those  who  have  had  experience  and  lost,  invariably 
keep  the  lamentable  matter  as  quiet  as  possible.  To 
disclose  their  losses  would  injure  their  credit  and  their 
business  standing  and  would  be  a  reflection  upon  their 
sagacity,  so  you  do  not  learn  anything  from  them. 
Those  who  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  make  money, 
also  keep  perfectly  quiet;  they  prefer  to  have  you 
think  that  their  wealth  was  accumulated  in  some 
legitimate  business,  and  so  you  learn  nothing  from 
them. 

A  candid  statement  of  the  facts,  therefore,  and  an 
honest  disclosure  of  the  wiles  employed  in  Wall  Street 
to  ensnare  the  general  public  would  not  seem  uncalled 
for.  This  will  appear  the  more  expedient,  when  we 
consider  the  demoralizing  and  ruinous  effects  of  stock 
gambling  upon  the  country  at  large,  when  we  recall 
the  prosperous  business  houses  forced  to  the  wall  by 
"  outside  speculation  "  or  by  the  embezzlements  of 
speculating  clerks,  when  we  remember  the  banking  in- 
stitutions wrecked  by  speculating  officials,  and  the  many 
honest  men  who  have  been  converted  into  thieves  and 
forgers  and  driven  to  despair  and  suicide  through 
their  losses  in  Wall  Street. 


8 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


II. 

THERE  is  of  course  a  legitimate  side  of  Wall 
Street ;  it  is  here  that  great  enterprises  may  be 
honestly  financed;  it  is  here  that  the  surplus  money 
of  the  country,  unemployed  in  general  business,  may 
find  a  quick  and  often  a  profitable  investment,  in  rail- 
road and  industrial  stocks  and  bonds;  it  is  through 
Wall  Street  that  public  bond  issues  have  been  quickly 
floated  to  relieve  the  Federal  government,  in  times  of 
financial  distress.  The  legitimate  side  of  Wall  Street, 
therefore,  is  nearly  as  great  a  necessity,  in  our  finan- 
cial system,  as  the  United  States  Treasury;  it  serves 
as  a  propelling  center,  through  which  the  financial  life 
blood  of  the  nation  courses. 

It  is  not  this  side  of  Wall  Street,  however,  that  we 
shall  consider  here,  but  the  speculative  side,  in  which 
too  many  of  the  general  public  are  more  or  less  inter- 
ested and  infatuated;  the  side  that  wastes  its  life,  in 
trying  to  chase  the  flying  fractions  up  and  down  the 
fluctuations  of  the  market;  the  side  that  buys  stocks, 
not  outright  for  investment  but  on  margin  for  specu- 
lation ;  the  side,  as  some  one  has  expressed  it,  that  tries 
to  take  a  shoestring  and  run  it  into  a  shoe  store. 

Some  great  fortunes,  we  must  admit,  have  been 
made  in  stock  speculation ;  but  this  is  possible  only  for 
a  few  insiders,  and  not  for  the  general  public;  their 
fortunes  are  lost,  not  made  here.    With  the  public, 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


9 


money  acquired  in  marginal  transactions,  if  at  all,  is 
sooner  or  later  lost  in  the  same  way,  and  generally 
much  more  with  it.  Brokers'  books  show  that  only 
about  one  speculator  in  ten  ever  makes  anything,  the 
other  nine  lose,  and  of  this  one-tenth  who  make,  not 
one  in  ten  keeps  his  profits. 

You  have,  therefore,  about  one  chance  in  a  hundred 
to  beat  the  game.  Now  wouldn't  you  consider  that 
rather  desperate  gambling?  It  certainly  is  and  the 
reason  why  the  public  ever  become  involved  in  stock 
speculation  is  because,  at  the  start,  they  know  noth- 
ing about  it. 

Jay  Gould,  in  the  management,  wrecking  and  devel- 
opment of  great  railroad  properties,  rigged  the  stock 
market  up  and  down,  to  his  vast  profit ;  but  as  he  was 
in  a  position,  through  his  connection  with  these  cor- 
porations, to  virtually  control  the  market  price  of  their 
stocks,  with  him  it  was  scarcely  a  speculation  at  all, 
but  rather,  a  certainty ;  and  bear  in  mind  that  what  he 
alone  made,  in  stock  speculation,  pure  and  simple,  the 
general  public  had  to  lose,  since  he  won  fortune  from 
the  ruin  of  thousands. 

What  may  be  said  of  Gould,  as  to  the  element  of 
chance,  may  also  be  said  of  the  "  Standard  Oil  crowd'' 
to-day,  for  with  this  powerful  faction,  the  most  power- 
ful and  dangerous  ever  in  Wall  Street,  stock  specula- 
tion is  much  more  of  a  certainty  than  it  could  be  with 
Jay  Gould. 


10 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


in. 

IF  there  was  ever  an  Ignis  fatuus,  a  delusion  and 
a  snare,  the  speculative  side  of  Wall  Street  is  one. 
If  the  speculator,  by  any  chance,  should  at  first  blunder 
into  making  money  rapidly,  as  is  sometimes  the  case, 
his  days  are  numbered ;  for  this  first  success  is,  almost 
surely,  the  precursor  of  his  untimely  fall;  and  the 
larger  his  first  profits,  the  greater  will  be  the  shock 
of  that  fall. 

There  can  be  nothing  more  stimulating,  more  exhil- 
arating, more  intoxicating,  than  these  first  successes 
in  Wall  Street  speculation,  seeming  to  open  up  a 
smooth  and  easy  path  to  great  wealth,  power  and  hap- 
piness. With  the  coming  of  these  first  profits,  the 
speculator  begins  to  dream  dreams  and  see  visions. 
What  appears  to  him,  in  these  dreams,  naturally  de- 
pends upon  his  temperament  and  tastes,  his  early  edu- 
cation and  environment. 

One  man,  perhaps,  sees  a  fine  stable  of  horses  and 
the  excitement  and  enthusiasm  of  the  race  course;  he 
sees  his  favorites  win  the  victory  and  hears  the  shouts 
of  excited  thousands ;  another  man  dreams  of  abundant 
leisure  and  freedom  from  distracting  care;  he  sees  an 
easy  chair  before  a  cheerful  fire,  and  surrounding  him 
his  splendid  library,  the  choice  literature  of  all  the 
ages,  through  which  he  may  commune  with  the  great 
souls  of  earth ;  another  dreams  himself  the  owner  of  a 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


11 


grand  mansion,  standing  amid  stately  parks;  he  sees 
its  velvet  lawns,  its  verdant  shrubbery  and  beautiful 
flowers,  he  sees  its  walls  hung  with  the  rich  tapestries 
of  the  East  and  with  the  rare  paintings  of  genius,  he 
hears  strains  of  sweet  music  and  the  laughter  of  con- 
vivial feasts  —  here  shall  be  boundless  hospitality  and 
here  shall  be  endless  delight ;  another  sees  a  panorama 
of  travel  in  foreign  lands,  and  a  season  of  pleasure 
and  profit  in  the  great  capitals  of  Europe;  another 
dreams  of  a  happy  home,  with  all  the  comforts  and 
luxuries  of  life,  beautiful  children,  a  loving  wife,  radi- 
ant with  contentment  and  joy. 

These  are  some  of  the  dreams,  these  are  some  of  the 
illusions  which  rainbow-like  appear  before  the  mental 
vision  of  the  successful  Wall  Street  speculator;  ele- 
vated into  the  seventh  heaven,  when  his  fortune  turns, 
as  turn  it  will,  great  and  overwhelming  is  his  fall  —  the 
bullet  hole  in  the  temple,  the  acid-stained  lips,  the  stiff 
and  lifeless  body,  lifted  from  the  river,  tell  the  sad  tale 
of  disappointment  and  despair. 


0  make  money  by  speculation  in  stocks,  on  margin, 


1  looks  to  the  uninitiated  more  easy  even  than 
the  proverbial  inexertion  of  "  rolling  off  a  log."  It 
is  the  opinion  of  the  inexperienced  that  all  one  has  to 
do  is  to  send  an  order  down  to  Wall  Street  in  the 
morning,  and  along  toward  evening  a  van  will  back  up 


IV. 


12 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


to  his  front  door  and  unload  about  a  billion  dollars  in 
gold  bullion.    Such  is  the  delusion. 

Wall  Street,  however,  is  dominated  by  some  of  the 
brainiest  and  shrewdest  men  in  the  country,  natural- 
born  sharpers  and  schemers,  and  before  the  average 
man  can  get  the  better  of  them,  except  through  the 
merest  chance,  he  will  have  to  eat  brain  food  for  a  long 
time. 

Stock  speculation,  as  I  say,  looks  easy;  the  stocks 
can  go  only  two  ways,  either  up  or  down  —  you  do  not 
have  to  spend  any  time  looking  out  for  their  dodging 
sideways  —  all  that  you  have  to  do  is  to  buy  when  they 
are  low,  and  sell  when  they  are  high.  But  after  the 
novice  has  tried  it  awhile,  for  some  mysterious  reason 
he  changes  his  mind  completely  about  its  being  easy 
and  telegraphs  for  money  to  get  home.  He  is  forced 
to  conclude  that  there  is  no  more  difficult  way  to  make 
money,  and  no  easier  or  surer  way  to  lose  it.  He 
finds,  although  he  cannot  explain  it  or  account  for  it, 
that  somehow  every  time  he  buys  stocks  they  go  down, 
and  every  time  he  sells  them  short  for  a  decline,  they 
go  up. 

Occasionally,  perhaps,  he  really  gets  his  mind  on  the 
right  side  of  the  market,  but  at  these  times  he  never  has 
the  courage  of  his  convictions  to  invest ;  he  most  likely 
is  dissuaded  by  some  one's  opinion  or  casual  remark, 
and  so  he  stands  by  and  looks  on,  torn  and  exasperated 
with  always  losing  his  opportunity,  which  is  almost  as 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


13 


harrowing  as  losing  his  money.  If  perchance  he 
would  have  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  he  is  then 
not  in  a  position  to  trade,  his  capital  being  tied  up  in 
bad  ventures,  or  by  this  time  entirely  lost. 

If  you  have  ever  talked  with  old  Wall  Street  specu- 
lators (the  majority  of  them,  by  the  way,  rather  seedy 
looking  fellows)  you  may  have  noticed  that  their  con- 
versation is  almost  entirely  upon  what  they  might  have 
made,  but  didn't.  There  is  always  an  "  if "  that 
stood  in  the  way  of  their  making  millions;  they  glow 
with  the  great  opportunities  and  wonderful  possibil- 
ities of  Wall  Street  speculation,  but  theirs  is  a  tale  of 
great  opportunities  lost  and  a  direful  dirge  of  harrow- 
ing regrets. 

It  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  Wall  Street  speculation 
that  the  novice  never  gets  his  courage  worked  up  to 
buy  stocks  until  the  market  is  right  on  the  top,  and 
he  never  concludes  to  sell  until  the  market  is  clear  on 
the  bottom. 

It  is  truly  remarkable  what  accuracy  a  greenhorn  is 
capable  of  in  this  direction.  If  you  could  watch  one 
of  them  trade  and  then  do  just  the  opposite  yourself, 
in  a  short  time,  you  ought  to  be  in  a  position,  finan- 
cially, where  you  would  require  the  services  of  private 
detectives  to  accompany  you  about  and  protect  your 
person  from  cranks  and  the  curious. 

Now  what  is  the  reason  for  this?  Why  is  it  that  a 
greenhorn  executes  such  peculiar  antics,  and  in  his 


14 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


efforts  to  make  money  at  the  game,  relieves  himself 
of  his  last  dollar?  Well,  the  novice  and  all  outsiders, 
old-timers  for  that  matter,  are  dancing  to  the  music  of 
the  so-called  i  i  insiders, ' '  who,  I  can  assure  you,  never 
fiddle  for  nothing.  Who  these  insiders  are  and  how  the 
game  is  run,  I  will  endeavor  to  explain. 

No  one  is  in  a  position  to  know  anything  about  the 
future  course  of  the  stock  market,  except  those  con- 
nected with  the  large  banking  interests,  the  officers  and 
directors  of  the  corporations,  whose  stocks  and  bonds 
are  traded  in,  on  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange,  the 
pool  managers  or  operators  and  the  largest  brokerage 
houses.  This  constitutes  the  faction  known  as  the 
"  insiders  "  or  as  "  underground  Wall  Street,"  and 
while  the  market  is  of  course  governed,  considerably, 
by  general  conditions,  these  people,  through  their  vast 
interests,  are  large  factors  in  creating  and  forcing  con- 
ditions, and  they  virtually  control  and  manipulate  the 
game  and  direct  the  course  of  the  market's  fluctua- 
tions, as  they  please ;  or  if,  in  any  event,  the  market  is 
beyond  control,  they  are  in  a  position  to  turn  quickly 
with  it,  in  advance  of  the  public. 

Since  the  insiders  really  control  the  market,  to  fore- 
cast the  course  of  its  stock  fluctuations  is  like  trying  to 
guess  what  another  man  is  going  to  do,  who  after  you 
have  made  your  guess  comes  around  and  quietly  finds 
out  just  what  it  is,  and  then  to  fool  you,  goes  and 
does  the  contrary.  Now,  do  you  think  that  you  are  a 
sharp  enough  guesser  to  make  money  under  such  con- 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


15 


ditions?  Those  of  you  who  have  tried  the  shell  game, 
sometime,  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  beat  another  man 
at  his  own  delusive  tricks;  and  so  you  will  find  it  in 
Wall  Street. 

The  position  of  the  insiders,  you  will  see,  is  pecul- 
iarly advantageous.  The  large  New  York  banking 
interests,  for  example,  know  the  true  and  not  the  re- 
ported condition  of  the  money  market,  which  is  a 
great  factor  in  stock  manipulation,  and  they,  conse- 
quently, know  about  what  the  bank  statement  will  be 
each  week,  before  it  is  sent  out  to  the  public. 

If  for  the  purpose  of  making  money  appear  scarce 
and  high,  cash  has  been  withdrawn  from  the  clearing 
house  banks  and  deposited  in  trust  companies  or  locked 
up  temporarily  in  safe  deposit  vaults,  or  sent  to  the 
interior  uncalled  for,  or  carried  over  to  Jersey  City, 
as  is  sometimes  done  during  a  "  bear  raid  "  upon  the 
market,  these  people  know  it.  If  there  is  news  of  any 
nature,  which  will  affect  the  market,  they  know  it  in 
advance,  even  before  it  is  sent  out  on  the  news  tickers, 
and  they,  of  course,  take  advantage  of  their  position, 
accordingly. 

After  the  officers  and  directors  of  a  corporation  have 
quietly  plundered  it  into  bankruptcy,  their  next  effort 
is  to  unload  as  much  of  its  stock  as  possible  upon  the 
unsuspecting  public,  and  at  the  very  highest  prices; 
then  if  for  example  the  sworn  financial  statements  of 
such  a  company  are  being  padded  and  doctored,  by 


16 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


skillful  bookkeeping  and  perjury,  so  as  to  make  its 
business  appear  in  a  prosperous  condition,  the  insiders 
know  it,  but  mind  you  the  outside  public  do  not;  they 
are  fed  with  the  most  glowing  and  optimistic  reports 
on  this  company's  condition  and  prospects,  so  that 
they  will  be  induced  to  buy  the  stock. 

The  large  brokerage  houses  may  not  be  in  quite  so 
advantageous  a  position,  as  the  other  insiders,  yet  they 
know  from  their  books  and  the  general  trend  of  Wall 
Street  affairs  which  side  of  the  market  the  public  are 
on,  who  of  course  are  to  be  made  to  lose  anyway,  and 
they  know  about  what  the  position  of  the  insiders  is 
—  both  very  valuable  information. 

The  great  advantage  of  the  insiders  in  this  game  is, 
therefore,  perfectly  manifest  and  accounts  for  the  rea- 
son why  the  "  dear  public,' '  as  the  "  lambs  "  or  out- 
siders are  affectionately  called,  are  always  kept  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  market  and  the  reason  why  they  cut 
up  such  surprising  antics.  Can  you  wonder  at  it? 
What  chance  have  they,  but  to  lose,  lose,  always  lose. 

In  this  connection,  a  scheme  resorted  to  by  the  presi- 
dent of  one  of  the  large  industrial  trusts,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  unloading  his  stock  upon  the  public,  is  both  in- 
teresting and  illustrative.  The  president,  from  his  in- 
timate knowledge  of  the  trust's  affairs,  knew  that  its 
stock  must  soon  rapidly  depreciate  in  market  value ;  he, 
therefore,  called  in  his  brother-in-law  and  said  to  him, 
confidentially,  ' '  Now  if  you  want  to  make  some  money 
just  buy  our  stock,  it  is  going  to  have  a  big  advance." 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


17 


So  the  brother-in-law  bought  eagerly;  he  not  only 
bought  but  he  quietly  passed  the  word  to  his  friends 
and  they  in  turn  passed  it  on  to  their  friends,  among 
whom  were  widows  and  young  women  school  teachers. 
They  all  rushed  in  and  bought  to  hold  for  large  profits. 
The  stock  made  a  trifling  advance,  at  first,  after  which 
it  began  to  decline  and  kept  on  declining,  until  it  had 
dropped  about  25  per  cent. 

The  brother-in-law  then  came  around  to  the  trust 
magnate  and  said,  "  What  are  you  trying  to  do,  are 
you  trying  to  ruin  me?  I  have  lost  $18,000  on  that  fine 
tip  of  yours.' '  "  0  well,''  said  the  trust  president, 
"  that's  all  right,  don't  worry  about  such  a  little 
matter;  here  is  a  check  for  your  $18,000,  and  it  is 
mighty  cheap  at  that,  for  I  unloaded  nearly  $5,000,000 
of  my  stock,  on  the  little  tip  and  at  top  prices.  I  guess 
the  news  of  that  big  advance  must  have  leaked  out 
somehow." 

V. 

O  UT  why  cannot  one  trade  in  stocks  on  the  advice  of 
his  broker,  you  may  ask.  The  brokers  ought  to 
be  experts  in  the  game;  they  have  the  advantage  of 
long  experience  and  close  proximity  to  the  market  and 
the  large  brokerage  houses  have  the  benefit  of  intimate 
business  relations  with  the  insiders. 

Well,  notwithstanding  what  the  brokers  may  know 
2 


18 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


about  the  market  situation,  do  not  believe  for  a  mo- 
ment, that  they  are  going  to  give  any  valuable  informa- 
tion to  their  small  fry  customers  or  to  the  outside  pub- 
lic, as  some  might  be  led  to  suppose.  That  wouldn't 
do ;  if  the  brokers  gave  out  such  information,  they,  for 
instance,  could  not  market  the  stocks  of  the  large  in- 
side interests,  which  might  be  in  their  hands  for  sale, 
or  could  not  buy  stocks  for  them,  on  the  bottom,  and 
would  thus  lose  their  valuable  patronage. 

If  an  insider  or  a  manipulator  of  the  market  holds 
stocks  that  he  is  anxious  to  dispose  of,  because  he 
knows  that  they  will  depreciate  in  market  price,  and 
he  accordingly  puts  them  into  the  hands  of  a  broker 
to  sell,  the  broker  is  expected  to  call  attention  to  these 
stocks  in  his  market  letters,  recommending  them  to 
his  customers  and  the  public  as  just  what  they  should 
buy  for  an  immediate  advance  and  for  large  profits. 
The  lambs  at  such  times  rush  in  and  buy,  and  the  insid- 
ers sell. 

The  business  of  the  New  York  broker,  you  will  see, 
is  to  keep  the  public,  who  confidingly  pursue  their  ad- 
vices, misled  and  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  market. 
The  public,  that  good  tiring  (to  borrow  an  expression) 
must  be  made  to  continually  pour  into  this  great  hop- 
per, the  glittering  gold,  to  feed  the  greedy  mill  of  Wall 
Street  speculation,  that  it  may  grind  out  colossal  for- 
tunes for  a  few  rich  insiders. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


19 


Let  me  give  you  an  illustration  of  the  effect  it  would 
have  upon  a  broker's  business  and  upon  the  market 
generally,  if  he  told  all  that  he  might  know  and  gave 
out  correct  information,  in  his  letters  of  advice.  Sup- 
pose, for  instance,  some  big  market  manipulator  has  run 
a  stock,  say  Southern  Pacific,  up  twenty  or  thirty  points 
and  has  concluded  that  it  is  now  about  time  for  him  to 
commence  unloading  on  the  "  lambs."  This  manipu- 
lator has  an  immense  line  of  stock  and  must  begin  to 
unload  early  and  feed  it  out  gradually,  so  as  not  to 
break  the  price,  or  he  is  going  to  ki  get  left."  While 
doing  this,  he  must  pretend  to  be  buying ;  while  buying 
2,000  shares  he  will  perhaps  sell  5,000  shares  at  the 
same  time ;  every  scheme  must  be  exploited,  to  make  a 
market  for  the  stock  and  so  induce  the  iDublic  to  come 
in  and  kindly  take  it  off  his  hands  before  the  bottom 
drops  out. 

At  such  times  he  calls  in  the  reporters  or  gladly 
welcomes  them,  when  they  come  round  on  their  quest 
for  news,  and  sets  forth  his  alleged  views  on  the 
market  situation.  With  reasons  wise  and  plausible, 
he  enlarges  upon  the  great  prosperity  of  the  country 
and  the  sound  condition  of  business,  and  affirms  his 
honest  belief  in  the  further  improvement  of  the  stock 
market,  and  especially  predicts  a  sharp  advance  in 
the  stocks  which  he  is  now  ready  to  unload.  These 
views  are  then  written  up  by  the  reporters  for  the 
public  to  read. 


20 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


Suppose,  at  this  juncture,  the  manipulator  gives 
some  broker  an  order  to  sell  25,000  shares  of  his  South- 
ern Pacific  at  certain  figures  or  for  what  they  will 
bring,  and  the  broker  should  tell  the  public,  through 
his  market  letters,  or  should  whisper  around  to  his  cus- 
tomers, that  this  heavy  operator  was  selling  Southern 
Pacific  and  that  he  had  an  order  from  him  to  dispose 
of  25,000  shares.  If  the  broker  did  that,  every  one  who 
held  the  stock  would  at  once  conclude  that  the  boom 
was  over  and  would  rush  to  sell  his  own  holdings ;  the 
crowd  would  fairlv  fall  over  one  another  to  sell  out 
first  and  obtain  the  highest  price,  and  before  the  large 
manipulator  could  unload  much  of  anything,  Southern 
Pacific  would  go  down  like  a  thousand  of  brick.  Very 
likely  too  the  rest  of  the  market  would  be  carried  down 
with  it. 

Should  the  market  manipulator  be  thwarted  in  this 
manner  by  his  broker,  he  would  be  very  apt  to  look 
upon  him  as  a  u  chump,' '  and  forever  afterward,  that 
broker  would  not  be  rushed  much  with  business  from 
this  operator  nor  from  any  of  the  other  heavy  interests 
in  the  "  Street." 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  it  is  the  broker's  mission 
under  such  circumstances  to  deceive  and  bewilder  the 
public.  It  makes  a  market  for  the  stocks  and  insures 
more  profitable  business  from  his  rich  customers,  and 
moreover  he  considers  it  his  religious  duty  to  keep  the 
game  running  "  right." 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


21 


It  is  quite  evident  then  that  one  will  not  acquire 
wealth  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  by  following  a 
broker's  advice. 

VI. 

P)ERHAPS  you  say,  "  It  seems  to  me  that  the  pub- 


1  lie  would  come  to  realize,  after  a  while,  what 
dangers  beset  them  in  Wall  Street  and  consequently 
keep  out  of  speculation;  that  the  withdrawal  of  the 
public  would  cut  off  Wall  Street's  source  of  revenue 
and  thus  spoil  this  fine  sport,  '  such  fun  for  the  boys, 
but  such  death  to  the  frogs.'  "  —  No,  this  does  not 
seem  to  be  the  conclusion  drawn  by  the  inexperienced. 
Wall  Street  is  an  institution  that  has  been  running  a 
long  time  now  and  there  are  plenty  of  victims,  coming 
on  all  the  while,  who  seeing  others  go  to  ruin  there,  on 
every  hand,  yet  think  that  they  can  beat  the  game  — 
such  is  its  peculiarly  delusive  and  dangerous  nature. 

Wall  Street  insiders  do  not  worry  themselves  over  a 
scarcity  of  ' i  lambs ;  ' '  they  go  on  the  old  theory,  some- 
what inelegantly  expressed,  that  a  "  sucker/'  as  they 
say,  is  born  every  minute,  on  a  general  average,  and, 
consequently,  there  will  always  be  an  inexhaustible 
supply.  This,  however,  seems  to  me  a  rather  high  av- 
erage; the  people  universally  are  becoming  more  and 
more  enlightened  and  not  so  gullible  as  they  once 
were,  and  I  would  not  be  surprised  if  this  general 
average  has  been  reduced  now  to  something  like  a 


22 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION 


"  sucker, "  born  every  other  minute.  This  average, 
nevertheless,  makes  a  good  liberal  supply  and  a  thriv- 
ing business  for  Wall  Street. 

As  for  the  Wall  Street  crowd,  generally,  the  Wall 
Street  brokers  and  the  insiders,  who  run  the  game,  let 
me  say,  right  here,  by  way  of  warning,  that  a  ring  of 
more  consummate  rascals  never  get  together  —  never ; 
and  these  people  are  the  more  dangerous,  for  the  rea- 
son that  they  present  the  polished  appearance  of  emi- 
nent respectability  and  fair  dealing. 

If  a  broker  is  engaged  in  carrying  speculative  ac- 
counts on  margin,  he  is  running  what,  in  reality,  is  a 
gambling  institution,  in  which  one  man  gets  another 
man's  money  for  nothing.  Furthermore,  this  is  the 
very  worst  form  of  gambling  —  simply  ruinous  to  most 
people  who  engage  in  it.  To  make  in  the  game  is  worse 
than  to  lose,  because  it  finally  lures  men  on  to  lose  their 
all,  not  only  money,  but  hope,  courage  and  capacity  for 
honest  work. 

Such  an  occupation,  from  its  very  nature,  certainly 
has  no  remarkably  high  moral  uplift  in  it ;  but  on  the 
contrary  a  tendency  to  develop  men  without  a  con- 
science, and  consequently  you  will  find  New  York  brok- 
ers, and  especially  Wall  Street  manipulators,  hard 
and  heartless,  with  no  more  conscience  than  a  stone. 
Wouldn't  it  be  foolish  to  expect  anything  else,  in  an 
open  game  of  "  dog  eat  dog  and  the  Devil  take  the 
hindmost?  99 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


23 


If  then  one  is  going  into  Wall  Street,  as  a  speculator, 
he  has  to  look  out  for  Wall  Street,  and  if  he  goes  into 
the  "  Street  "  understanding  conditions  and  methods 
as  they  are,  that  is,  if  he  goes  in  to  steal  and  should 
then  get ' '  stole, ' '  what  is  he  going  to  say  or  do  about  it 
anyway!  But  when  people  are  first  drawn  into  Wall 
Street  speculation,  they  do  not  understand  these  mat- 
ters; in  fact,  they  generally  know  less  than  nothing 
about  the  game,  because  what  ideas  they  have  on  the 
subject  are  all  wrong,  their  knowledge  constituting, 
we  might  say,  a  minus  quantity ;  they  are  what  is  called 
in  the  "  Street  "  "  swift  losers  "  and  are  certainly 
most  innocent,  easy  and  pitiful  victims. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  position  of  the  in- 
siders in  the  stock  market,  relative  to  that  of  the  out- 
siders, it  is  very  evident  that  with  the  insiders,  as  I 
have  said,  the  element  of  chance  is  practically  elimi- 
nated. The  insiders  are  so  powerful  and  so  much 
feared  that  if,  for  instance,  one  of  the  big  "  bears  " 
wishes  to  depress  the  market,  about  all  that  he  has  to 
do  is  to  say  "  boo  "  and  down  it  goes  —  at  the  word 
everybody  rushes  to  sell. 

By  making  market  conditions  appear  precisely  the 
opposite  of  what  they  really  are,  the  insiders  keep  the 
public  on  the  losing  side  and  put  themselves  on  the 
winning  side.  This  is  the  principal  part  of  what  is 
known  as  stock  market  manipulation  and  is  accom- 


24 


WALL  STKEET  SPECULATION. 


plished  in  a  hundred  skillful  and  mysterious  ways,  too 
dark  and  devious  to  investigate  here,  in  detail. 

In  this  connection,  it  will  be  understood,  that  you 
cannot  have  a  market  where  every  one  is  of  the  same 
opinion  —  sentiment  must  be  divided  —  when,  for  in- 
stance, one  wishes  to  sell  stocks,  there  must  be  another 
on  hand  who  thinks  it  for  his  advantage  to  buy,  and 
vice  versa ;  that  makes  the  necessary  two  sides  to  the 
market. 

This  sentiment  in  Wall  Street  is  made  to  order  for 
the  "  lambs  "  by  the  insiders  and  fashioned  to  suit 
their  own  purposes.  The  newspapers  are  very  potent 
factors  in  accomplishing  this  end  and  are  always  used 
by  the  manipulators  to  steer  the  public  upon  the  wrong 
side.  Very  little  financial  news  gets  into  the  papers, 
which  will  not  further  the  interests  of  the  insiders. 
What  the  newspaper  reporter  must  have,  of  course,  is 
"  copy  "  and  his  pay  for  it;  he  must  hand  it  in,  at  just 
such  a  time ;  he  has  no  means  or  opportunity  of  inves- 
tigating the  truth  of  what  he  hears  and  writes ;  he  does 
not  have  much  time  even  to  write  it;  so  the  inside 
manipulators  lie  to  the  reporters,  the  reporters,  inno- 
cently, let  us  hope,  mislead  the  newspapers  and  the 
press,  though  doing  the  best  it  can,  misleads  the  people, 

The  speculative  public  feed  upon  these  lies,  form 
their  opinions  upon  them,  and  then  plunge  into  the 
stock  market,  with  their  money,  to  double  it,  and  come 
out  paupers. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


25 


In  the  end,  it  is  true,  the  press  arrives  at  the  facts ; 
but  it  is  too  late  then  for  the  speculator ;  he  reads  with 
empty  pockets.  The  market  has  long  since  discounted 
the  facts.  Hence  it  follows  that  if  one  would  get  a 
correct  idea  of  the  stock  market  situation  from  the 
newspapers,  he  must  read  it  from  between  the  lines,  or 
spell  it  for  himself,  from  figures,  which  are  often  given 
out  incorrect  or  in  such  form  as  to  deceive.  Do  you 
wonder  that  the  public  always  lose,  when  the  news- 
papers are  about  their  only  source  of  information 
upon  which  to  forecast  the  course  of  the  market. 

This  may  not  be  the  fault  of  the  press,  because  it  is 
generally  impossible  to  obtain  the  facts  immediately 
affecting  the  market,  so  carefully  are  such  matters 
kept  guarded;  but  on  this  point  we  will  refrain  from 
mentioning  certain  subsidized  financial  sheets,  pub- 
lished in  the  Wall  Street  district,  and  we  will  pass  over 
those  financial  writers  for  the  daily  press,  who  are 
bribed  by  the  manipulators  to  give  such  a  coloring  to 
their  articles  as  their  employers  may  dictate. 

By  the  time  the  insiders  are  ready  to  sell  their 
stocks,  you  see  it  is  comparatively  easy,  through  these 
methods,  to  have  the  public  all  deceived  into  believing 
that  it  is  now  just  the  time  for  them  to  buy  if  they 
would  become  rich'.  And  on  the  other  hand,  when  the 
insiders  are  ready  once  more  to  buy  stocks,  it  is  as  easy 
to  have  the  public  again  misled  into  thinking  that  now 


26  WALL  STKEET  SPECULATION. 

is  the  time  for  tliem  to  sell,  if  they  would  get  out  be- 
fore the  crash  comes. 

Wall  Street  speculation  might  be  likened  to  a 
crooked  game  of  cards.  Suppose  in  crossing  the  At- 
lantic, on  one  of  the  great  ocean  liners,  you  fall  in  with 
some  ' '  poker  sharps, ' '  who  have  been  lying  in  wait  for 
you.  They  have  the  cards  all  plainly  marked,  but  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  marks  cannot  be  seen  by  you, 
even  if  suspected.  Now,  what  chance  do  you  think 
there  would  be  for  you  to  win,  no  matter  how  well  you 
understand  the  game?  As  with  the  insiders  in  the 
stock  market,  these  sharpers  take  no  chances.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  marked  cards,  suppose  that  you  are  at  the 
disadvantage  of  being  a  greenhorn  at  the  game,  and 
dependent  upon  the  other  players  to  tell  you  how  to 
play,  while  they  are  old  "  card  sharps  "  and  make 
gambling  a  steady  occupation.  Don't  you  think  that 
your  chances  would  be  slimmer  still,  if  possible?  In 
case  you  won  anything  at  all,  it  would  be  a  voluntary 
contribution,  on  their  part,  for  the  purpose  of  inveigl- 
ing you  in  deeper;  and  thus  cleaning  you  to  a  finish. 
What  folly  to  put  up  your  money  under  such 
conditions. 

So  it  is  with  the  Wall  Street  game,  you,  inexperi- 
enced, are  playing  with  marked  cards,  as  it  were,  and 
are  in  the  hands  of  old  sharpers,  who,  through  the 
press  and  brokers'  and  tipsters'  letters,  are  actually 
telling  you  how  to  play  into  their  hands.    In  appear- 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


27 


ance,  these  sharpers  are  very  kind,  dignified  and  re- 
spectable gentlemen,  well  calculated  to  disarm  sus- 
picion; but  your  chances  of  winning  are  just  as  pro- 
pitious in  Wall  Street  as  in  the  poker  game  on  the 
ocean  steamer  —  the  game  just  as  respectable  and  the 
methods  employed  against  you  analogous.  Conse- 
quently it  is  a  foregone  conclusion  that,  when  a  novice 
hands  his  money  into  a  broker 's  office  for  margin,  it  is 
goodbye  money  and  when  he  writes  out  an  order  for 
a  trade  in  stocks,  he  is  sending  a  written  invitation  to 
disaster. 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  Wall  Street  game  and  such 
are  the  methods  of  those  who  operate  it.  Is  there  any- 
thing more  heartless  or  despicable  ?  ' i  Al. ' '  Adams,  the 
notorious  policy  king,  was  duly  exposed,  properly 
railed  at  by  the  press  and  finally  landed  where  he  be- 
longs ;  but  infamous  and  pitiless  as  his  game  may  have 
been,  it  was  a  mere  bagatelle  compared  with  the  great 
game  of  the  multi-millionaires  in  Wall  Street. 

VII. 

MOST  of  you,  doubtless,  have  heard  of  14  bucket 
shops,' '  and  perhaps  some  of  you  may  have 
wondered  to  what  branch  of  the  hardware  trade  or  to 
what  department  of  the  cooperage  business  they  be- 
long. This,  however,  is  a  kind  of  shop  which  pertains 
to  Wall  Street  alone,  rather  than  to  any  line  of  legiti- 
mate business ;  and  what  sort  of  an  institution  this  is 
permit  me  to  explain. 


28 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


A  regular  broker,  when  he  receives  an  order  to  buy 
or  sell  stock,  has  it  executed  on  the  floor  of  the  Stock 
Exchange,  that  is,  he  buys  the  stock  and  has  it  delivered 
to  him  to  hold  for  his  customer  or  in  case  of  a  short 
sale,  he  sells  the  stock,  then  borrows  and  delivers  it  to 
another  broker,  for  the  purchaser,  these  deliveries 
being  made  through  the  Stock  Exchange  Clearing 
House. 

The  proprietor  of  a  u  bucket-shop  ' '  on  the  contrary 
does  not  do  this;  he  merely  enters  the  transaction 
on  his  books  the  same  as  though  he  had  really  bought 
or  sold  the  stock,  and  he,  therefore,  holds  no  stock 
for  his  customer. 

For  example,  suppose  you  give  a  bucket-shop  pro- 
prietor an  order  to  buy  200  shares  of  a  certain  stock 
at  par,  that  is,  for  $100  a  share.  As  the  purchase 
price  of  the  200  shares  would  be  $20,000,  you  deposit 
$2,000  with  your  so-called  broker,  as  a  ten  point,  or, 
in  other  words,  a  10  per  cent,  margin,  on  the  pur- 
chase price  of  the  stock.  Then  suppose  the  stock  de- 
clines from  100  to  90,  at  which  figure  90,  the  stock  is 
sold  at  the  10  per  cent.,  or  $2,000  market  decline. 
Since  the  proprietor  has  not  bought  the  stock,  but 
merely  carried  the  transaction  on  his  books,  he  has 
had  nothing  in  his  possession  to  depreciate  in  value 
and  no  money  has  really  been  lost  in  the  deal  by  any 
one. 

Nevertheless,  the  bucket-shop  proprietor  seizes  your 
$2,000,  deposited  with  him  as  margin;  and  he  also 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


29 


charges  you  with  interest  on  $18,000,  money  which  you 
are  supposed  to  have  borrowed,  as  the  balance  over 
your  $2,000  required  to  buy  the  $20,000  worth  of  stock, 
but  which  money  in  fact  was  never  loaned ;  and  he  also 
charges  you  commissions  for  both  buying  and  selling 
the  stock,  which  he  has  neither  bought  nor  sold  for 
vou. 

The  bucket-shop  business  virtually  consists  in  trans- 
ferring the  customer's  deposits  to  the  credit  of  the 
bucket  shop  and  in  charging  the  customer  commissions 
and  interest  for  doing  it. 

It  is  the  policy  of  Wall  Street,  that  when  a  man  is 
relieved  of  his  money,  he  must  be  charged  high  for 
having  it  done,  otherwise  he  might  suspect  that  he 
had  been  robbed.  After  paying  high  for  the  service, 
the  victim  goes  away  much  better  satisfied  and  thinks 
that  all  has  been  done  for  him  that  could  be. 

This  business,  it  will  be  seen,  is  profitable  to  the 
proprietor,  when  the  market  goes  against  the  cus- 
tomer, which  is  generally  the  case.  The  customer 
does  not  lose  any  more  than  he  would,  with  a  regular 
broker,  in  the  execution  of  the  same  orders;  but  the 
customer  is  placed  at  the  disadvantage  of  having  his 
so-called  "  broker  "  working  against  him,  all  the  time, 
and  watching  to  seize  the  money,  which  he  has  depos- 
ited as  margin.  In  fact  it  is  said  that  bucket-shop 
firms  generally  divide  up  the  money,  deposited  with 
them,  as  soon  as  received,  they  feel  so  sure  of  it. 
When  the  market  goes  in  favor  of  the  customer,  of 


30 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


course  the  proprietor  loses ;  but  on  the  whole,  it  makes 
a  very  profitable  business,  if  large  enough,  and  about 
a  sure  thing. 

As  these  institutions  all  pose  before  the  world  as 
bankers  and  have  the  supreme  assurance  to  style  them- 
selves, "  Bankers  and  Brokers,"  in  dazzling  gilt  let- 
ters, few  of  their  customers  ever  know  the  difference 
or  suspect  that  their  orders  are  "  bucketed  "  —  they 
merely  know  in  the  end  that  they  have  been  cleaned 
out. 

Considering  the  manner  in  which  the  bucket-shop 
business  is  managed,  one  of  the  most  pathetic  situa- 
tions that  I  know  of  is  to  see  a  trader,  in  one  of  these 
institutions,  when  the  market  runs  against  him,  go 
around  to  the  proprietor  or  manager  of  the  place  and 
ask  his  advice  as  to  what  he  shall  do,  in  order  that  he 
may  get  out  of  his  trouble. 

When  the  trader  loses,  the  proprietor  makes,  and 
when  the  trader  makes,  the  proprietor  loses.  After 
you  are  once  good  and  safe  in  Hades,  why  not  ap- 
proach his  Supreme  Majesty  and  tremblingly  ask  him, 
if  he  will  please  show  you  a  crack  or  a  rathole,  some- 
where, to  crawl  out  of  —  it  would  be  as  diplomatic 
and  you  would  as  likely  escape. 

Some  of  the  regular  brokers,  on  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange,  "  bucket  "  their  small  orders,  such  as  they 
think  are  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  market,  the  same 
as  would  be  done  in  a  regular  bucket-shop;  that  is, 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


31 


they  bucket  the  orders  of  the  lambs  and  their  small- 
fry  traders,  who  are  generally  wrong,  and  thus  the 
broker  cleans  up  the  whole  thing,  margin,  interest  and 
commissions. 

The  broker  reasons  about  as  follows:  "  Here  is  a 
6  lamb,'  who  wants  to  speculate;  he  is  going  to  lose, 
anyhow;  '  a  fool  and  his  money  are  soon  parted,'  and 
I  may  as  well  have  his  money  as  some  trader  or 
the  bucket-shop  next  door.  Why  shouldn't  I  work 
this  game  for  all  there  is  in  it?  Business  is  business. 
Since  the  lamb  is  about  to  be  slaughtered,  I  may  as 
well  slaughter  him  and  get  what  he  will  render,  as  my 
competitor  across  the  way." 

This  Wall-Street  moralizing  would  not  seem  so 
harsh,  perhaps,  if,  under  the  circumstances,  the  broker 
did  not  quietly  throw  all  the  dust  possible  in  his  cus- 
tomer's eyes,  to  bewilder  and  mislead  him  and  thus 
keep  him  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  market,  make  him 
lose  and  then  say  to  him  afterward,  ' '  I  am  very  sorry 
but  you  did  it  yourself. ' ' 

If  I  were  not  going  to  trade  very  heavily,  and  as- 
suming that  a  bucket-shop  firm  is  financially  responsi- 
ble, as  some  are,  notwithstanding  all  that  may  be  said 
against  such  an  institution,  I  would  much  prefer  it 
to  a  so-called  regular  brokerage  house,  where  they 
"  bucket  "  part  of  their  orders.  It  is  about  the  same 
old  confidence  game,  in  either  place,  for  that  matter; 
but  as  the  advice  of  a  bucket-shop  proprietor  would 
naturally  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  he  keeps  more 


32 


WALL  STKEET  SPECULATION. 


quiet  and  does  not  try  to  confound  his  customers  so 
much;  he  lets  them  work  out  their  own  destruction. 

This,  of  course,  may  take  a  little  longer  than  where 
the  customer  is  led  straight  up  to  the  precipice  and 
pushed  off ;  but  the  bucket-shop  proprietor  relies  upon 
the  old  and  very  true  theory,  that  "  if  you  give  a  calf 
enough  rope  it  is  sure  to  hang  itself  sooner  or  later, ' ' 
and  that  there  is  no  need  of  being  in  such  a  hurry 
about  it. 

If,  however,  the  bucket-shop  is  not  financially  re- 
sponsible, as  many  small  ones  are  not,  when  you  lose 
you  don't  get  it,  and  then  when  you  make  you  don't 
get  it ;  this  constitutes  a  kind  of  double  twister  which 
holds  out  faint  hope  of  vast  wealth;  but  on  the  con- 
trary the  prospect  of  a  rapid  depletion  of  your 
exchequer. 

A  New  York  Stock  Exchange  brokerage  firm,  doing 
business  in  the  Wall  Street  district  for  many  years, 
reaps  a  rich  harvest  in  the  "  bucketing  "  business 
from  the  lambs  throughout  the  country.  The  adver- 
tisements of  this  firm  and  the  market  letters  of  one 
of  its  members  are  published  widely,  in  the  country 
papers,  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  the  attention  of 
the  unsophisticated.  There  can  be  no  more  lucrative 
and  easy  business  than  that  of  luring  in  the  green- 
horns, gaining  their  confidence  and  taking  the  first 
crack  at  them.  When  the  lambs  come  into  the 
"  Street,"  this  firm  receives  the  lion's  share  of  their 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


33 


business  and  after  their  money  is  once  put  into  the 
hands  of  these  sharpers  for  margin  account,  they  do 
not  intend  that  their  customers  shall  ever  get  away 
with  a  dollar  of  it. 

No  identification  is  required  when  the  newcomer 
arrives  to  deposit  his  money,  but  later,  if  he  wishes 
to  withdraw  his  account  and  is  fortunate  enough  to 
have  anything  on  the  books  to  withdraw,  every  bar- 
rier possible  is  put  in  his  way.  He  must  be  identified 
first,  now  that  they  know  him,  and  no  one  brought 
for  the  purpose  is  satisfactory.  If  the  brokers  can 
keep  him  a  little  longer  they  know  that  they  are  sure 
of  his  whole  account. 

For  the  purpose  of  getting  the  customer  interested 
in  the  market  again,  possibly  his  attention  is  drawn 
with  much  skill  to  some  market  ' 1  tip, ' '  through  which 
he  is  led  to  believe  that  he  can  make  "  big  money.' ' 
If  he  bites  on  the  right  side,  that  is  on  the  losing  side 
for  him,  his  order  is  "  executed  "  with  remarkable 
celerity,  and  reported  as  quickly  as  it  can  be  set  down 
on  a  book,  lest  he  might  change  his  mind  and  cancel 
it;  but  should  he  bite  on  the  winning  side,  his  order 
is  not  "  executed,' 1  very  likely  more  margin  is  de- 
manded or  some  other  effectual  obstruction  is  raised. 
Needless  to  say,  they  make  short  work  of  him;  and 
his  money  is  very  soon  all  transferred  to  the  credit 
of  the  firm. 

3 


34 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


VIII. 


WORD  might  be  said  regarding  the  two  Stock  Ex- 


*  *  changes  in  New  York  city,  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  and"  the  Consolidated  Exchange.  It  is  gen- 
erally considered  more  safe  to  do  business  with  the 
New  York  Stock  Exchange  firms  than  with  those  on 
the  "  Consolidated,"  because  by  dealing  with  New 
York  Stock  Exchange  firms  you  enjoy  the  protection 
of  the  older  and  stronger  institution  and  the  protec- 
tion of  its  rules. 

There  may  be  a  certain  guaranty  of  security,  from 
the  fact  that  the  largest  brokerage  firms  are  on  the 
older  exchange  (although  the  largest  firms  are  often 
the  first  to  fail) ;  but  whatever  there  may  be  in  this 
supposition,  you  will  find  that  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  is  an  association  organized  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  brokers  against  the  public;  it  is  not 
even  incorporated,  so  as  to  become  that  much  amen- 
able to  the  law;  one  broker  very  naturally  can  be 
expected  to  lie  for  another,  as  they  must  stand  to- 
gether in  times  of  trouble,  consequently,  the  public 
can  expect  little  protection  from  such  an  institution. 

Although  the  brokers  may  be  perfectly  square 
among  themselves,  as  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity, 
in  the  execution  of  business  on  the  floor  of  the  Stock 
Exchange,  yet  if  they  get  a  chance  to  "  do  "  you,  you 
are  done,  and  you  may  as  well  throw  up  both  hands, 
and  as  Mark  Twain  said  to  the  outlaws  who  ' '  held  him 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


35 


up  "  in  the  western  wilds,  "  Go  through  me,  please, 
as  quickly  as  possible,  and  I  will  do  as  much  for  you 
some  time." 

IX. 

T  HAVE  tried  thus  far  to  explain  in  a  measure  how  the 
*  "  dear  public  99  are  handled  by  the  insiders,  and 
relieved  of  their  cash,  or,  in  other  words,  how  they 
"  shear  the  lambs;  "  although  I  must  confess  that  in 
giving  an  account  of  Wall  Street  methods  I  find  it 
necessary  to  tone  down  the  facts  considerably,  in  or- 
der to  gain  credence  for  what  is  said.  Those,  who 
have  always  lived  in  an  atmosphere  removed  from 
Wall  Street  and  have  had  no  personal  experience  here 
simply  could  not  believe  the  whole  truth  if  told;  it 
would  be  impossible  for  them  to  conceive  that  any 
such  men  or  methods  exist. 

At  long  intervals,  however,  occasions  arise,  when 
the  public  are  really  given  a  little  rest.  On  the  bottom 
of  a  "  bear  market,' '  the  public  are  so  thoroughly 
cleaned  out  and  scared  out  that  only  a  few  remain, 
holding  on  to  their  stocks;  the  "  lambs  "  are  about 
all  dead  now,  and  those  who  survive  are  likely  to 
soon  pass  away. 

As  the  insiders  and  investors  hold  nearly  all  the 
stocks,  picked  up  at  panic  prices,  they  have  nothing 
else  to  do  but  to  turn  and  eat  each  other,  and  a  battle 
of  the  giants  is  sometimes  inaugurated.    Certain  large 


36 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


and  powerful  interests  wish  to  dislodge  large  blocks 
of  stock  held  on  margin  by  other  large  speculative 
interests.  Jealousy  exists  among  the  big  men  in  Wall 
Street  the  same  as  elsewhere  in  the  world  of  strife. 

Since  the  market  is  about  ready  to  be  advanced 
twenty  or  thirty  points,  one  large  interest  cannot  bear 
to  see  another  get  the  benefit  of  the  advance;  each 
wishes  to  gobble  up  the  other's  stock,  if  possible  — 
or  perhaps  some  corporation  desires  to  acquire  con- 
trol of  a  certain  property  at  rock  bottom  figures.  So 
they  go  to  work  to  run  prices  down  still  farther,  clear 
below  the  bottom,  and  depress  the  market  to  such  an 
extent  that  holders  of  these  large  blocks  of  stock  will 
be  forced  out  of  them  through  exhausted  margins. 

This  is  called  "  gunning  "  for  stocks,  and  is  accom- 
plished in  various  ways;  for  instance,  by  "  selling 
the  market, "  curtailing  the  money  supply,  calling 
loans,  and  by  the  large  interests  putting  in  orders  to 
buy  on  a  scale  down  when  there  are  scarcely  any 
other  buying  orders  in  the  market.  These  are  danger- 
ous times  for  the  small  fellows,  in  case  there  should 
be  any  of  them  left  carrying  stocks;  for  if  they  get 
in  the  way  when  the  "  battle  royal  "  is  on,  they  are 
sure  to  be  hurt. 

Did  you  ever  see  two  big  bull  dogs  fighting  furiously 
over  a  bone!  Well,  they  remind  me  of  the  insiders 
fighting,  or  ' '  gunning, ' '  for  one  another 's  stocks.  The 
bull  dogs  growl  and  snarl  and  snap  and  bite  at  each 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


37 


other,  and  perhaps  some  little  poodle  becoming  mixed 
in  the  fray  gets  snapped  clear  in  two,  and  the  big 
dogs  in  their  ferocity  never  know  it  at  all.  They,  of 
course,  are  after  the  bone,  but  it  is  the  last  of  the  little 
poodle  just  the  same. 

We  take  occasion  to  observe  here  that  it  is  easy  to 
avoid  the  fate  of  this  little  fellow  by  keeping  entirely 
out  of  the  melee.  Fascinating  as  the  game  of  chance 
may  be  to  some  natures,  it  can  scarcely  be  considered 
wise  to  put  your  head  into  a  lion's  mouth  just  to  see 
whether  or  not  it  gets  snapped  off. 

X. 

PERHAPS  the  Wall  Street  "  tipsters  "  would  feel 
slighted,  if  I  passed  them  by,  and  not  wishing  to 
have  any  hardness  over  the  matter,  I  will  introduce 
them  for  a  few  moments. 

There  are  certain  people  in  Wall  Street  known  as 
"  tipsters  "  who  advertise  that  they  can  tell  you  how 
to  speculate  and  that  they  will  advise  you  every  day, 
for  a  consideration,  whether  the  market  is  going  up 
or  going  down.  This  may  look  like  a  great  boon, 
but  you  will  find  that  if  you  take  their  advice  and  fol- 
low it  very  long,  instead  of  playing  the  Wall  Street 
game  in  New  York  city,  you  will  be  playing  croquet 
at  the  poorhouse. 

These  "  tipsters  "  issue  daily  letters  through  the 
mails  to  their  customers,  who  pay  in  advance  any- 


38 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


where  from  five  to  twenty  dollars  per  month  for  being 
told  how  to  acquire  fabulous  wealth.  As  a  rule,  these 
fellows  are  dangerous  frauds  and  sometimes  unscru- 
pulous scroundrels,  who  are  in  the  employ  of  pools  to 
unload  stocks  upon  outside  speculators  and  investors. 
The  lambs  send  in  their  money  to  the  tipsters,  and 
pay  as  usual,  to  be  led  on  to  ruin. 

Once  in  a  while,  however,  some  passably  honest  fel- 
low will  set  up  in  Wall  Street  as  a  "  tipster,7 '  and 
will  trv  to  do  the  best  he  can.  Of  course,  he  is  not 
an  insider  —  far  from  it  —  nor  a  medium,  nor  a  veiled 
prophet,  and  he  does  not  know  any  more  about  what 
the  insiders  are  doing  or  which  way  the  market  will 
go  than  you  do.  You  may  be  just  as  good  a  guesser 
as  he.  If  the  tipster  could  successfully  predict  the 
market  movements,  it  is  evident  that  he  would  not 
have  to  bother  with  writing  market  letters  every  day ; 
he  could  soon  sail  around  the  Mediterranean  in  his 
own  steam  yacht,  having  nothing  to  worry  him. 

The  letters  of  some  tipsters,  let  me  say  here  by  way 
of  parentheses,  are  comparatively  harmless,  as  they 
give  you  the  priceless  inside  information,  the  gist  of 
which  is,  that  if  the  market  doesn't  go  up,  it  will  go 
down,  and  if  it  doesn't  rain,  there  will  probably  be  a 
long  dry  time;  but  the  shrewdest  tipsters  pursue  this 
course;  they  make  their  letters  of  advice  both  "  bul- 
lish "  and  "  bearish,"  that  is,  part  of  the  same  letter 
predicting  an  advance,  and  part  of  it  predicting  a  de- 
cline.   This  leaves  the  speculator  somewhat  in  doubt, 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


39 


to  be  sure,  and  more  or  less  bewildered;  but  the  tip- 
ster is  safe  anyhow.  No  matter  which  way  the  market 
goes  he  can  pick  out  an  isolated  sentence  somewhere 
in  his  letters  that  will  be  all  right.  Afterward  he  can 
harp  on  this  one  sentence  and  direct  the  attention  of 
his  clients  to  it,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  cor- 
rect his  forecasts  of  the  market  are,  and  then  tell  his 
customers,  if  they  would  only  follow  his  advice  they 
would  make  money. 

A  certain  Wall  Street  broker  writes  two  market  let- 
ters each  week;  one  appears  in  the  financial  column 
of  a  popular  New  York  daily,  and  the  other  reaches 
the  public  through  the  mails  in  the  form  of  a  broker's 
letter,  each  letter  being  published  over  a  different 
name.  This  broker  having  an  eye  to  business  and 
mindful  of  the  necessity  of  two  sides  to  the  market, 
although  the  two  letters  are  published  at  the  same 
time,,  usually  predicts  in  one  that  the  market  will  ad- 
vance, and  in  the  other  that  the  market  will  decline. 

But,  occasionally,  a  passably  honest  fellow,  as  I 
was  saying,  sets  up  as  a  tipster;  since  he  guesses  the 
best  that  he  can  he  may  sometimes  strike  it  right; 
his  customers  increase  and  he  becomes  quite  a  little 
power  in  the  "  Street/'  on  account  of  his  following. 
Assuming  that  the  tipster  has  any  such  good  luck  as 
this,  when  the  insiders  learn  that  he  is  putting  his 
customers  on  the  right  side  of  the  market,  how  they 
do  go  for  him  —  surreptitiously,  of  course.    If  the 


40 


WALL  STEEET  SPECULATION. 


tipster  cannot  be  bribed,  which  he  generally  can  be, 
with  u  puts  "  and  "  calls  "  on  stocks,  they  employ 
every  means  in  a  way  that  he  would  not  suspect,  to 
"  stuff  him,"  give  him  points,  lie  to  him,  and  thus  get 
his  clients  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  market,  and  make 
a  tool  out  of  him  for  themselves.  He  then  becomes 
very  valuable  to  the  insiders,  for  the  purpose  of  un- 
loading stocks  upon  the  public  at  the  top,  and  for 
frightening  the  "  lambs  "  out  at  the  bottom. 

To  use  the  simplest  kind  of  an  illustration,  an  out- 
sider might  as  well  contract  to  predict  which  way  a 
toad  will  always  jump,  as  to  agree  to  tell  which  way 
the  stock  market  will  fluctuate.  After  the  toad  jumps 
the  prophet  can  tell,  but  not  before  —  just  as  what  is 
called  "  hindsight,"  in  Wall  Street,  is  always  good, 
so  much  better  than  foresight.  The  prophesier  may 
think  that  he  knows  from  the  looks  of  the  toad,  from 
the  direction  of  its  nose,  for  instance,  which  way  it 
will  jump;  he  finds,  nevertheless,  that  its  looks  are 
deceptive,  and  that  just  before  leaping  it  is  apt  to  turn 
suddenly  and  spring  in  the  opposite  direction. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  if  the  tipster  were  an 
insider  his  honest  advice  would  be  invaluable;  but 
the  insiders,  I  can  assure  you,  have  nothing  to  give 
away;  you  will  not  find  them  advertising  to  predict 
market  movements  for  the  "  lambs,"  in  consideration 
of  $5  a  month,  correct  advice  on  which  would  be 
worth  millions.    Furthermore,  if  they  published  such 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


41 


information,  it  would  utterly  ruin  the  game.  Know- 
ing the  unfailing  source  of  the  advice,  everybody 
would  be  of  one  opinion  and  all  on  the  same  side  of 
the  market.  It  is  the  difference  of  opinion,  as  I  have 
explained,  which  makes  the  game  possible;  there  must 
be  one  side  to  furnish  the  profits  and  the  other  side 
to  rake  them  in. 

These  are  some  of  the  methods  —  these  are  some  of 
the  hidden  forces  —  which  are  working  constantly  and 
insidiously  toward  relieving  the  public  of  that 
$100,000,000,  and  much  more,  year  after  year.  Have 
you  ever  contributed  anything  toward  that  fund?  If 
so,  instead  of  handing  the  money  over  to  these  sharp- 
ers, would  it  not  be  better  if  you  had  given  it  to  your 
orphan  asylum  or  to  your  hospital  or  to  your  old 
ladies'  home,  or  to  your  wife  even  —  for  wives,  as  you 
know,  are  more  or  less  objects  of  charity?  But  I 
must  not  ask  such  aggravating  questions. 

Many  of  the  public,  however,  have  been  somewhat 
fortunate,  we  might  say,  in  their  Wall  Street  losses, 
for  the  reason  that  they  may  now  pose  as  philanthro- 
pists, and  as  generous  contributors  to  a  certain  worthy 
charity  —  an  unexpected  distinction,  to  be  sure,  since 
they  made  their  contributions  without  knowing  it  at 
the  time,  and  I  may  add  without  any  very  generous 
impulses. 

Who  was  it,  if  I  may  ask,  by  way  of  illustration,  that 
paid  for  the  libraries,  which  have  been  donated  so 
liberallv  to  various  cities  and  towns  in  the  United 


42 


WALL  STKEET  SPECULATION. 


States  and  Great  Britain.  Who,  in  reality,  earned 
and  contributed  the  money  for  their  establishment? 
Was  it  the  "  Laird  of  Skibo  Castle,' '  or  the  deluded 
investors  in  every  city,  village  and  hamlet,  who  bought 
the  common  stock  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corpo- 
ration, and  got  nothing  for  their  money?  Were  not 
they  the  real  contributors  after  all  ?  Let  us  see,  for,  if 
this  is  the  case,  it  will  be  a  consolation  to  many. 

When  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  was 
formed,  the  larger  steel  properties  in  this  country 
were  sold  to  the  big  trust  for  twice  and  three  times 
their  actual  value.  The  Carnegie  Steel  Company,  for 
instance,  was  turned  over  to  the  trust  for  $100,000,000 
more  than  the  property  had  been  offered  for  one  year 
before.  In  reality  it  was  being  sold  to  the  public  this 
time,  and  the  public  were  buying  at  the  seller's  own 
price  —  no  questions  asked,  no  objections  raised.  The 
public  is  always  so  "  easy  "—  why  shouldn't  prices 
be  doubled  and  trebled?    What  a  temptation! 

In  the  end  the  vast  profits  of  these  great  iron  mas- 
ters, on  the  sale  of  their  properties,  were  to  be  taken 
from  the  pockets  of  the  victims  who  would  buy  the 
common  stock  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
on  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange.  This,  needless  to 
say,  was  to  be  so  adroitly  managed  that  those,  who 
were  to  be  victimized  in  this  way,  would  never  suspect 
what  was  going  on  until  it  was  too  late. 

The  steel  trust  was  to  issue  over  half  a  billion  dol- 
lars par  value  of  common  stock,  without  a  dollar  of 


ITS  TRICKS  AXD  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


43 


assets  behind  it,  and  recommend  it  to  the  confiding  as 
a  sound  investment  security  —  more  than  $500,000,000 
of  stock,  in  its  intrinsic  value  absolutely  worthless,  to 
be  foisted  upon  the  public  for  the  purpose  of  catching 
the  unwary ! 

This  is  what  in  Wall  Street  is  called  "  High 
Finance, 99  or  to  use  a  more  modern  term,  "  Mor- 
ganeering. ' 9 

When  it  comes  to  the  last  analysis,  therefore,  it  will 
be  found  that  the  purchasers  of  this  worthless  stock 
were  the  real  contributors  of  the  money  which  founded 
the  libraries  in  question,  since  from  their  pockets 
came  the  enormous  profits  of  the  donor,  which  grew 
out  of  this  great  stock- juggling  swindle,  enriching  him 
and  impoverishing  thousands.  Let  us;  at  least,  give 
the  real  contributors  the  satisfaction  of  regarding  the 
ostensible  donor  as  their  trustee. 

Who  bought  this  stock?  The  small  capitalist,  the 
small  tradesman,  farmers,  mechanics,  clerks,  and  old 
women  even,  with  a  few  hundred  dollars  laid  aside  to 
bury  themselves  with;  this  is  the  class  of  people  who 
were  "  worked  "  through  falsehood  and  large  divi- 
dends (while  the  stock  was  being  sold)  to  unload 
"  Steel  Common  "  upon.  They  got  the  pretty  pic- 
tures called  stock  certificates,  the  great  iron  masters 
and  financiers  got  their  money. 

Now,  don't  you  think  that  these  unfortunates  ought 
to  have  a  few  library  buildings,  especially  if  they  con- 
tain any  books  on  Wall  Street's  financial  methods? 


44 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


But  I  presume  it  is  safe  to  say  that  many  of  those, 
who  were  "  fleeced  "  on  Steel  Common,  have  been 
cramped  worse  since  for  the  necessities  of  life  than 
they  have  been  for  fine  library  buildings,  and  that 
many  of  them  could  use  their  money,  if  they  had  it, 
to  better  advantage  at  home,  for  the  purpose  of  keep- 
ing the  wolf  from  the  door. 

Yet  who  shall  say  that  the  establishment  of  these 
libraries  does  not  constitute  a  wise  and  enduring  char- 
ity, and  who  shall  say  that  therein  the  giver  is  not  a 
munificent  benefactor  of  the  present  and  of  coming 
generations,  for  whose  charities  the  recipients  should 
be  truly  thankful?  No  matter  how  vast  the  donor's 
wealth,  and  no  matter  what  its  sources,  he  might  have 
kept  it  all  for  himself,  being  under  no  legal  obligation 
to  contribute  any  part  of  his  millions  to  charity. 

An  acquaintance  of  mine  went  down  to  Coney  Island 
one  afternoon  with  a  roll  of  bills  in  his  pocket.  Some 
"  bunco  steerers  "  got  hold  of  him,  and  it  was  not 
over  twenty  minutes  before  he  did  not  have  a  cent. 
But  after  the  "  bunco  steerers  "  had  appropriated 
all  of  his  money,  one  of  them  said  that  he  felt  sorry 
to  see  him  in  such  a  predicament,  and  gave  him  a  dol- 
lar with 'which  to  get  back  to  the  city.  Upon  his  re- 
turn he  was  telling  me  what  gentlemen  they  were,  how 
kind  they  appeared  to  be,  and  that  he  did  not  know 
what  would  have  become  of  him  if  it  had  not  been  for 
their  generosity. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


45 


What  I  have  said  thus  far  will  give  you  some  idea 
of  the  perils  that  await  the  adventurer  in  Wall  Street. 
But  the  public  never  learn  how  to  keep  out  of  danger 
in  stock  speculation,  and  never  can,  for  as  soon  as 
they  have  one  trick  well  mastered  a  new  one  is  sprung 
upon  them,  which  no  one  outside  the  shrewd  sharpers 
of  Wall  Street's  inner  circle  would  have  the  assurance 
or  the  ingenuity  to  invent. 

To  the  inexperienced  Wall  Street  is  ever  an  alluring 
light,  toward  which  men  seem  drawn  by  some  peculiar 
power.  Continually  the  moths  keep  flying  into  the 
flame,  until  their  wings  are  scorched  off  and  their 
charred  carcasses  fall  at  the  foot  of  the  candle  with 
swarms  of  the  other  dead. 


46 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


PART  II— ITS  TRAGEDIES. 

XI. 

NOW  let  me  give  you  one  little  instance,  showing 
how  people  are  drawn  unawares  into  stock 
speculation  and  financially  ruined.  A  particular  case 
will  perhaps  give  a  clearer  understanding  of  Wall 
Street  methods  and  present  a  more  vivid  picture  of 
the  speculator^  life  than  any  generalizations  that  I 
could  make. 

In  a  small  town,  situated  in  the  State  of  Connecticut, 
a  country  merchant  had  been  doing  business  for  forty 
years.  He  was  sixty  years  old  now,  and  as  the  result 
of  a  lifetime  of  patient  toil  and  careful  economy  he 
had  accumulated  what  in  those  parts  was  a  considera- 
ble fortune.  As  his  income  was  sufficient  for  himself 
and  his  wife  to  live  upon  very  comfortably,  and  as  his 
health  had  partially  failed  he  concluded  to  dispose  of 
his  business  and  retire. 

A  wealthy  farmer  in  the  neighborhood,  having  a 
son  not  in  love  with  agriculture,  wished  to  establish 
him  in  the  mercantile  trade,  and  when  he  heard  that 
old  man  Brown  wanted  to  sell  his  business  he  bought 
him  out,  store,  stock,  good  will  and  all;  he  took  the 
property  at  a  fair  price  and  paid  for  it  in  full.  The 
old  merchant  always  kept  a  large  bank  account,  as 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


47 


lie  bought  his  goods  for  cash,  and  when  he  looked  at 
his  bank-book,  after  depositing  the  farmer's  check,  he 
had  good  reason  to  feel  quite  satisfied  and  happy.  All 
his  assets  were  reduced  to  money  now,  and,  of  course, 
he  was  looking  for  trouble,  and  trouble  had  all  eyes 
peeled  looking  for  him.  In  cases  of  this  kind  the 
parties  generally  meet  before  long  and  arrange  for 
an  interview. 

When  a  man,  who  has  devoted  his  life  to  one  kind  of 
business,  finally  sells  out  and  converts  his  property 
into  cash  he  is  always  an  easy  prey  for  swindling 
schemers.  He  thoroughly  understands  the  business 
in  which  he  spent  his  life,  and,  therefore,  made  money 
at  it,  but  when  he  comes  to  handling  his  slippery  cash 
in  other  lines,  especially  in  those  of  a  speculative  na- 
ture, my  observation  has  been  that  he  nearly  always 
gets  cleaned  out;  and  if  he  goes  into  Wall  Street  it 
seems  that  the  more  careful  and  conservative  a  busi- 
ness man  he  has  always  been  the  more  he  will  lose 
his  head  here. 

But  let  us  watch  this  old  merchant  and  see  him 
double  his  money.  For  years  he  has  had  his  eye  on 
the  market  for  dry  goods  and  groceries  and  for 
produce;  he  tried  to  buy  his  goods  when  the  market 
was  low,  and  sell  his  produce  taken  in  barter  wiTen 
the  market  was  high.  This  he  generally  did,  and  he 
thought  he  was  a  pretty  sharp  old  duck  at  it,  as  in 
fact  he  really  was.    In  watching  the  other  markets 


48 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


his  attention  had  now  and  then  been  drawn  to  the 
Wall  Street  stock  market,  and  he  thought  that,  if  he 
ever  had  a  good  chance,  he  would  like  to  take  a  crack 
at  it  sometime. 

He  always  had  understood  that  what  one  required 
to  make  money  in  Wall  Street  was  capital  —  that 
money  makes  money  there,  and  he  had  the  capital  now. 
Then  it  would  be  such  an  easy  and  such  a  pleasant 
occupation;  he  couldn't  stand  on  his  feet  the  way  he 
used  to  all  day  in  the  store;  but  he  could  sit  in  the 
easy  chairs  of  a  broker's  office  and  watch  the  stock 
market  quotations  all  right.  He  knew  that  he  would 
like  the  business,  and  he  thought  it  just  about  excit- 
ing enough  to  be  interesting. 

His  wife,  from  what  little  she  had  heard  concerning 
stock  speculation,  was  somewhat  wary  at  first,  when 
her  husband  began  to  talk  of  going  into  Wall  Street; 
but  the  old  man  said  that  he  didn't  see  any  great 
difference  between  buying  100  shares  of  stock  at  90  and 
selling  them  at  110,  and  buying  so  many  sacks  of  flour 
at  wholesale  and  selling  them  out  for  a  profit  at 
retail,  except  that  it  was  a  mighty  sight  less  work  to 
buv  and  sell  the  stock  than  it  was  the  flour  and  ten 
times  more  money  in  it  —  anyway,  ' i  nothing  ventured 
nothing  gained. ' ' 

The  old  man  did  not  realize  it,  but  he. imbibed  these 
ideas  from  reading  certain  books  and  pamphlets, 
which  brokers  are  continually  sending  out  through  the 


ITS  TRICKS  AXD  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


49 


mails  for  the  purpose  of  inveigling  the  public  into 
Wall  Street;  and  in  this  kind  of  literature,  brokers, 
very  naturally,  make  a  special  effort  to  veneer  their 
gambling  game  with  the  appearance  of  a  respectable 
business.  If  they  can  get  people  to  reading  these 
little  books,  they  know  from  experience  that,  sooner 
or  later,  the  readers  will  become  interested  in  "Wall 
Street,  and  come  to  be  offered  up,  as  it  were  a  burnt 
offering,  upon  its  altar  of  avarice  and  greed. 

This  reasoning  of  the  old  gentleman  did  look  rather 
plausible,  and  as  he  was  not  going  in  very  heavy,  any- 
how, his  wife  said  that  if  he  thought  money  could  be 
made  so  easilv  down  there  in  Wall  Street,  he  better 
go  along  and  make  some. 

It  was  as  wise  to  say  this  as  anything  else,  for 
when  a  man  once  gets  the  speculative  Wall  Street 
fever,  and  is  smitten  with  the  mad  desire  to  lose  his 
money  in  the  quickest  way  possible,  it  is  useless  to 
advise  him  against  it,  nothing  will  stop  him  —  you 
might  as  well  advise  a  person  stricken  with  the  ty- 
phoid to  reduce  his  temperature  from  one  hundred  and 
four  degrees  Fahrenheit  down  to  ninety-eight  and  one- 
half  —  it  would  have  the  same  effect. 

So  the  old  man  takes  a  good-sized  New  York  draft 
from  his  account  at  the  bank,  sets  out  for  the  Metropo- 
lis and  deposits  his  money  with  a  responsible  Wall 
Street  broker  for  margin  account. 
4 


50 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


Of  course,  at  the  time  this  old  merchant  is  attracted 
by  the  stock  market  it  is  toward  the  end  of  a  a  bull 
campaign,"  when  stocks  are  selling  near  the  top  and 
are  about  ready  to  turn  downward.  In  fact,  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly seldom  that  a  novice  is  drawn  into  "Wall 
Street  when  the  market  is  around  the  bottom.  In  any 
event,  if  he  should  come  in  and  want  to  buy  stocks  at 
such  a  time,  the  brokers  would  scare  him  out  of  his 
wits.  It  is  always  during  the  loud  bull  chorus  and 
the  grand  hurrah,  on  the  last  end  of  a  boom,  that  the 
1 1  lambs  ' 9  are  called  in  to  be  fleeced. 

As  we  have  seen,  when  the  market  is  around  the 
top,  every  lie  and  every  wile  of  which  the  human  mind 
could  be  capable  is  employed  by  the  insiders,  for  the 
purpose  of  inducing  the  public  to  buy  their  stocks; 
but  after  a  quick  manipulated  decline  and  the  market 
begins  to  touch  bottom  the  insiders  quietly  pick  up 
the  stocks  again. 

At  these  times  the  lambs  and  the  small  fry,  if  tHey 
want  to  buy  on  margin,  are  told  by  the  brokers  that 
the  market  looks  like  going  lower,  and  on  account  of 
the  condition  of  the  money  market,  or  for  some  other 
plausible  reason,  they  can  only  buy  stocks  for  cash, 
that  is,  outright  and  not  on  margin.  This  course 
serves  to  keep  the  public  out  of  the  market  just  when 
they  should  buy.  When  stocks  were  selling  20  or  30 
per  cent,  higher,  brokers  were  perfectly  willing  to 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


51 


carry  all  one  could  hold  on  a  five  or  ten  point  margin, 
and  they  thought  it  perfectly  safe  at  that,  but  now 
when  stocks  are  down  say  thirty  points  and  about  to 
advance,  they  do  not  think  it  safe  for  the  lambs  to 
buy  on  a  margin. 

The  fact  is,  the  brokers,  on  these  occasions  of  un- 
usual opportunity,  very  likely  when  money  is  scarce 
and  high,  want  their  cash  and  credit  to  buy  stocks  for 
themselves  and  for  a  few  of  their  favored  customers 
and  friends.  They  are  not  employing  their  money  and 
credit  now  for  the  benefit  of  the  small  traders  —  the 
chances  are  too  good ;  but  wait  a  while  until  the  market 
makes  a  good  sharp  advance,  and  the  same  brokers 
will  be  ready  again  on  the  top  to  carry  on  margin 
all  the  stocks  that  the  public  wish  to  buy.  They  know 
that  it  is  only  a  short  interval  before  the  money  put 
into  their  hands  for  margin  account  will  be  confiscated 
into  their  own  pockets,  or  appropriated  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  insiders.  This  is  the  policy  pursued  by 
most  of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  brokers. 

After  a  quick  manipulated  decline,  to  which  we  have 
just  referred,  the  conditions,  of  course,  are  different 
from  those  prevailing  after  a  period  of  prolonged  and 
steady  liquidation,  like  that  of  1902-1903.  In  the  lat- 
ter case,  when  such  thorough  liquidation  has  been 
forced,  it  is  necessary  for  a  long  wait  before  the  in- 
siders manipulate  the  market  anew,  in  order  to  give 
the  general  public  ample  time  to  recuperate  from  their 


52 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


overwhelming  losses,  bury  the  suicides,  console  the 
broken-hearted,  and  accumulate  more  money  in  the 
channels  of  honest  industry;  meanwhile  the  Wall 
Street  magnates  are  enjoying  the  proceeds  of  their 
last  coup  from  the  stock  market,  basking  in  the  sun- 
shine of  the  Riviera,  cruising  along  the  Mediterranean, 
reposing  beneath  Italian  skies,  and  hobnobbing  with 
princes  in  the  castles  of  Europe.  But  after  due  time, 
when  the  common  people  become  worth  the  game,  some 
new  scheme  is  devised  by  Wall  Street  to  lure  the  pub- 
lic into  the  stock  market  once  more  and  clean  them 
out  again.    And  so  the  good  work  goes  on. 

But  we  will  return  now  to  our  rural  merchant.  His 
broker  had  no  more  than  caught  sight  of  him,  when 
he  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  "  lambs,' '  and  as  he 
has  deposited  quite  a  large  sum  for  margin  account, 
his  kind  friend  and  adviser,  the  broker,  tries  to  make 
an  estimate  of  how  much  more  money  the  old  man 
has  back  to  be  relieved  of,  and  then  advises  him  to 
buy,  buy,  buy. 

The  broker  knows  that  his  customer,  being  inexperi- 
enced, would  not  sell  stocks  short  for  a  decline,  as 
he  should  at  this  time,  even  if  he  urged  him  to  — 
he  would  not  understand  the  transaction.  Moreover, 
since  prices  appear  to  be  near  the  top,  the  broker  has 
stocks  himself  for  sale,  as  well  as  orders  from  old 
customers  to  sell  their  holdings  at  top-notch  figures, 
and  he  is  interested  in  making  a  market  for  them. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


53 


More  than  likely,  however,  his  broker  advises  him 
to  buy,  then  "  buckets  "  his  orders  and  takes  the 
chances;  but  the  chances  are  very  few  in  such  a  case 
if  the  broker  can  get  his  customer  to  give  purchasing- 
orders  at  inflated  prices,  when  the  market  is  at  a  dizzy 
height. 

Our  rural  friend,  having  now  become  a  little  more 
accustomed  to  the  turmoil  down  in  Wall  Street,  and 
having  got  his  sand  up  on  good  advice  and  encourage- 
ment from  his  broker,  sails  in  and  buys  for  a  starter 
200  shares  of  St.  Paul,  that  is  200  shares  of  the  Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  R.  R.,  a  speculative 
favorite  in  Wall  Street.  Everything  is  more  or  less 
lively  along  toward  the  end  of  a  u  bull  campaign, " 
especially  St.  Paul  stock,  which  made  an  advance  of 
nearly  three  points  the  same  day  that  he  bought  it,  and 
netted  a  profit  on  the  200  shares  of  over  $500. 

This  set  the  old  man  nearly  crazy.  When  he  com- 
pared such  a  method  of  making  money  to  selling  salt 
mackerel  and  drawing  thick  molasses  in  cold  weather, 
and  then  waiting  for  the  pay  until  his  customers  sold 
their  steers  or  butchered  their  hogs  —  when  he  made 
these  comparisons  he  could  not  help  reflecting  upon 
what  a  fool  he  had  been  during  all  his  past  life.  He 
determined  now  to  get  immensely  rich;  he  had  the 
capital  to  do  it  and  he  was  not  going  to  be  very  long 
about  it  either. 

As  St.  Paul  seemed  to  be  a  good  jumper,  the  next 


54 


WALL  STEEET  SPECULATION. 


day  he  bought  500  shares  more.  After  he  bought  the 
stock  it  sagged  a  little,  and  he  wondered  what  was  the 
matter,  but  between  2  and  3  p.  m.  the  market  rallied 
and  St.  Paul  closed  about  a  point  and  a  half  higher 
than  where  he  bought  it,  and  he  stood,  on  the  books 
of  the  brokers,  something  like  $1,200  ahead  for  the 
two  days. 

He  was  crazier  than  ever  now.  All  the  tipsters  in 
Wall  Street  said  that  the  market  was  going  a  great 
deal  higher,  and  stated  the  prices  to  which  the  more 
active  stocks  would  advance.  Accordingly,  he  began 
to  figure  out  how  heavy  a  burden  his  margin  account, 
including  profits,  would  carry,  and  the  next  day  he 
loaded  up  with  all  the  stocks  that  his  funds  would 
hold  on  a  safe  ten-point  margin. 

Along  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  the  market 
began  to  drop  off  easily,  money  was  loaning  at  10  per 
cent,  on  call,  and  it  was  reported  that  the  National 
City  Bank  had  been  calling  loans,  which  was  the  case. 
The  Standard  Oil  crowd,  who  control  the  National 
City  Bank  and  various  other  Wall  Street  banks,  and 
who,  by  the  way,  virtually  run  the  stock  market  to 
suit  themselves,  having  completed  the  sale  of  their 
speculative  holdings,  and,  moreover,  having  sold  stocks 
short  (that  is  without  having  them),  were  now  anxious 
to  put  the  market  down  as  far  as  possible,  buy  in  their 
short  sales  at  low  prices,  and  accumulate  stocks  for 
another  advance. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


55 


Aided  by  the  inflated  condition  of  the  market,  which 
they  had  previously  fostered  and  encouraged  to  sell 
out  on,  they  proceed  to  force  prices  down,  among  other 
methods  by  making  money  scarce  and  high  and  by  set- 
ting afloat  direful  and  alarming  rumors. 

The  allied  Standard  Oil  banks  and  their  correspond- 
ents throughout  the  country  are  said  to  control  nearly 
one-half  of  the  money  in  the  United  States,  and  in 
times  of  inflation,  the  National  City  Bank  alone  (to 
say  nothing  of  the  others)  has  anywhere  from  one 
hundred  and  forty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  million 
dollars  out  in  loans,  a  considerable  part  of  this  amount, 
loaned  in  Wall  Street  "  on  call,"  and  upon  securities, 
as  collateral,  which  are  dealt  in  by  speculators  on  the 
New  York  Stock  Exchange. 

You  can  readily  see  what  a  power  these  banks  are 
to  the  Standard  Oil  people  in  manipulating  the  market 
either  up  or  down.  Since  they  hold  so  many  loans  in 
their  various  banks,  upon  stocks  carried  on  margin, 
the  business  of  brokers  and  the  large  operators  and 
their  speculative  position  is  an  open  book  to  these  great 
manipulators,  and  they  consequently  know  just  when, 
where  and  how  to  strike  a  blow  of  death  to  the  market. 

The  National  City  Bank  accordingly  begins  to  call 
loans,  right  and  left,  which  precipitates  upon  the 
market  thousands  of  shares  of  stock,  held  by  this  bank 
as  collateral.    Since  borrowers  are  unable  to  obtain 


56 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


accommodations  elsewhere,  their  certificates  of  stock, 
put  up  as  collateral  security  for  loans,  are  sold  at  the 
market.  Other  banks  are  soon  compelled  to  pursue 
the  same  course  in  order  to  protect  their  loans  upon 
rapidly  depreciating  collateral,  which  brokers  and 
other  borrowers  are  unable  to  keep  margined  up  to 
bank  requirements.  Frightened  holders  of  stocks  be- 
gin to  unload  and  ' i  old-timers  ' '  to  sell  short ;  and  the 
market  is  soon  deluged  with  securities,  nearly  every 
one  wild  to  sell  and  few  wishing  to  buy. 

The  Standard  Oil  crowd  thus  ultimately  succeed  in 
precipitating  a  panic,  Wall  Street  failures  and  general 
demoralization  and  disaster,  shaking  the  financial 
world  of  both  hemispheres  to  its  remotest  corners. 
In  this  way  they  confiscate  the  money  of  the  public  into 
their  own  capacious  pockets,  already  so  generously 


HIS  was  a  phase  of  the  speculative  situation  which 


A  the  old  merchant  little  understood;  he  thought 
that  the  market  must  soon  recover,  and  as  general 
business  was  still  in  a  flourishing  condition,  he  looked 
for  an  advance  in  stocks  to  prices  still  higher  than 
they  had  yet  reached.  He  did  not  know  that  Wall 
Street  anticipates  and  discounts  long  in  advance  all 
the  prosperity  in  sight,  even  through  the  most  power- 
ful lenses.  He  did  not  know  that  a  burst  of  glory  in 
the  business  world  is  a  signal  for  the  insiders  in  the 


filled. 


XII. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


57 


stock  market  to  unload  upon  an  eager  public,  and  then 
start  the  manipulation  of  decline  and  panic. 

The  fifth  day  after  being  launched  upon  this,  at  first 
smooth  sea  of  speculation,  the  old  man  found  the 
waters  becoming  exceedingly  rough  and  dangerous. 
The  market  kept  on  sagging;  it  had  a  good  start  now 
and  by  night  his  profits  were  all  wiped  out  and  he  had 
lost  about  $5,000  besides. 

As  a  merchant,  he  had  not  been  accustomed  to  los- 
ing money  that  fast  and  it  began  to  start  the  cold 
sweat  upon  his  brow;  he  stood  around  dazed  and 
looked  on,  while  his  hard-earned  money  was  melting 
away  by  the  thousands.  His  kind  friend  the  broker 
did  not  seem  to  be  much  in  evidence  at  this  juncture; 
he  did  not  see  him  around  anywhere  to  advise  what  he 
should  do.  The  old  man  concluded,  however,  to  hang 
on  to  his  stocks  until  the  market  would  turn  in  his 
favor,  and  in  that  way  not  lose  anything  after  all. 

The  situation  in  Wall  Street  was  now  beginning  to 
look  exceedingly  dismal,  where  only  a  few  days  before 
everything  appeared  so  roseate.  All  the  bad  news 
seemed  to  have  been  dammed  back  for  months  and  let 
out  at  this  time  systematically.  The  next  day  he  was 
out  about  $10,000  more,  and  was  called  by  his  broker 
for  additional  margin  at  once ;  so  in  order  to  save  what 
money  he  had  in,  and  see  the  thing  through,  he  gave 
the  broker  a  check  for  all  that  he  had  left  in  his  bank 
up  in  Connecticut. 


58 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


Down,  down,  down,  the  stocks  tumbled;  with  dark, 
haggard  faces  speculators  pace  the  floor  of  brokers' 
offices,  in  all  the  anxieties  of  hell,  with  trembling  hands 
they  hold  the  ticker  tape,  which  tells  the  sad  story,  and 
see  the  savings  of  a  life-time  swept  from  their 
grasp  —  yonder  sits  a  man  glaring  at  the  floor,  half- 
crazed,  contemplating  suicide  —  men  see  themselves 
irretrievably  ruined,  and  drop  dead  at  the  ticker !  But 
how  the  Standard  Oil  people  and  other  insiders  are 
now  making  money  out  of  these  unfortunates  on  their 
short  sales ;  and  what  bargains  they  are  picking  up  in 
cheap  stocks,  forced  from  the  hands  of  weak  holders, 
and  that  of  course  is  enough  —  no  gold  mine  on  earth 
ever  turned  out  profits  with  such  rapidity. 

Presently  the  old  merchant  was  almost  paralyzed  by 
another  call  for  additional  margin.  If  he  failed  to  com- 
ply  at  once  his  stocks  would  be  closed  out,  and  he  would 
lose  everything.  His  own  resources  had  become  en- 
tirely exhausted;  but  obtaining  the  indorsement  of  a 
friend,  he  borrowed  some  money  at  his  country  bank, 
and  poured  that  also  into  the  howling  vortex.  Then 
came  a  little  rally;  the  market  was  getting  near  the 
bottom,  but  at  last  it  took  another  slide  down  and 
plunged  the  old  man  to  his  financial  ruin. 

After  this  the  market  rallied  and  started  on  its 
course  upward.  Although  the  old  merchant  had  a 
small  margin  on  his  account,  at  the  lowest  quotations 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


59 


reached  on  the  decline,  nevertheless  his  broker  closed 
him  out,  right  on  the  bottom  and  just  as  the  market 
was  turning  for  a  prolonged  advance.  At  these  op- 
portune times,  when  stocks  are  depressed  far  below 
their  intrinsic  value,  the  insiders  are  particularly  anx- 
ious to  take  over  the  cheap  stocks  of  the  1 '  lambs, ' '  es- 
pecially after  the  latter  have  brought  their  last  dollar 
into  Wall  Street  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  their  ac- 
counts through  a  decline.  It  keeps  this  money  in  the 
"  Street  "  and  likewise  leaves  the  "  come-ons  "  with- 
out any  stocks  and  without  any  hope  of  recovering 
their  money.  More  greenhorns  and  more  margins  are 
now  in  order  —  and  thus  thrives  Wall  Street. 

The  way  the  old  fellow  took  on  in  the  broker's  office 
when  he  learned  that  he  had  been  sold  out  and  hope- 
lessly ruined  was  the  source  of  considerable  sport  with 
the  broker  and  his  clerks  for  several  davs  afterward. 

At  first,  when  he  complained  about  his  misfortune, 
the  broker  and  his  office  manager  gave  him  the 
il  hoarse  laugh,"  or  what  is  sometimes  called  the 
"  grand  haha;  99  but  when  they  saw  how  agitated  he 
was,  they  thought  that  perhaps  it  would  be  better 
policy  to  handle  him  differently ;  so  they  changed  their 
tactics  a  little  and  slapped  him  on  the  back  and  said, 
"Awfully  sorry,  old  man,  awfully  sorry;  but  we  just 
had  to  close  you  out,  you  know;  if  you  had  put  up  more 
margin,  we  would  have  carried  you  through." 


60 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


The  facts  of  the  case  are,  most  likely,  that  they  had 
"  bucketed  "  his  orders  or  disposed  of  his  stocks  soon 
after  the  decline  began ;  bnt,  notwithstanding  this,  had 
kept  him  handing  in  money  to  "  margin  down  his  ac- 
count,' '  and  they  were  now  alarmed,  when  the  market 
was  apparently  near  the  bottom,  lest  he  might  put  up  a 
large  margin  and  thus  give  them  no  good  chance  to 
scoop  him. 

Needless  to  say,  now  that  the  victim  had  been 
plundered  of  his  last  dollar  and  more  (for  he  was  in 
debt  to  his  bank),  he  was  of  no  further  use  to  the 
broker,  in  fact,  like  the  ruined  player  at  Monte  Carlo, 
a  bad  advertisement. 

At  Monte  Carlo,  however,  when  a  player  loses  his 
all,  it  is  the  humane  custom  of  the  establishment  to 
provide  him  with  sufficient  money  for  his  expenses 
home ;  but  not  so  in  Wall  Street  —  the  victim  can  walk 
home  or  blow  his  brains  out  or  jump  from  the  top  of 
a  twenty-story  building,  nobody  cares.  Accordingly, 
the  chief  concern  of  the  broker,  in  this  case,  was  to  get 
rid  of  the  old  man,  as  quietly  and  gracefully  as  pos- 
sible. But  this  little  matter  was  skillfully  and  success- 
fully managed,  since  the  broker  had  become  a  trained 
expert  in  this  line  through  long  practice. 

That  night,  away  from  the  noise  of  the  street,  in  the 
quiet  of  his  little  room  at  the  hotel,  the  old  man  sits, 
with  his  face  in  his  hands,  and  thinks  it  all  over  again. 
The  full  realization  of  his  disaster  now  begins  to  set- 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


61 


tie  down  upon  him.  Ruined!  ruined!  worse  than 
ruined,  and  sixty  years  old!  For  forty  years,  he  and 
his  faithful  wife  had  toiled  and  saved;  he  never  took 
a  vacation,  he  never  had  any  time  or  thought  that  he 
could  afford  to  attend  a  theater  or  a  lecture.  His  wife 
did  her  own  work  and  helped  in  the  store.  He  not 
only  worked  all  day,  but  posted  books  half  the  night. 
Competition  was  keen  and  profits  were  small,  which, 
with  the  loss  of  a  few  bad  accounts  every  year,  made 
the  process  of  accumulating  a  fortune  somewhat  slow, 
but  he  was  industrious,  careful  and  close;  he  had  al- 
lowed himself  few  pleasures  and  little  recreation;  he 
never  thought  that  he  had  time  to  rest,  and  in  acting 
as  proprietor,  general  manager,  buyer,  salesman  and 
bookkeeper  in  his  store,  he  was  too  tired  even  for  pleas- 
ure when  his  work  was  over. 

Most  everything  for  which  life  is  worth  living,  ex- 
cept work,  he  had  crowded  out  of  his  existence.  He 
had  always  been  getting  ready  to  enjoy  himself  when 
he  had  saved  so  much  money.  He  had  always  enter- 
tained the  laudable  ambition  of  making  his  old  age  and 
that  of  his  wife  comfortable  and  free  from  care  and 
worry.  This  ambition  he  had  fully  realized  when  he 
was  drawn  into  Wall  Street.  Could  he  go  through  it 
all  again  and  begin  over  where  he  started,  forty  years 
ago?  could  he  go  home  now  and  tell  his  wife?  could  he 
go  back  and  face  the  communitv  and  his  debt  at  the 
bank,  without  a  dollar?    No!  No!  sick,  disheartened, 


02 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


half  insane,  he  clutches  his  revolver  and  blows  his 
brains  out. 

Now  who  murdered  that  man?  The  scoundrels  who 
manipulated  the  Wall  Street  game  drew  him  into  it  and 
got  his  money.  They  are  really  the  ones  who  mur- 
dered him,  as  well  as  thousands  of  others,  who  have 
suffered  the  same  deplorable  fate;  these  scoundrels  are 
morally,  if  not  legally,  responsible.  That  is  the  way  to 
become  immensely  rich  and  do  it  quick  —  kill  people 
for  their  money !  But  do  it  systematically  and  within 
the  law,  mind  that  you  do  it  indirectly  and  within  the 
law.  This  please  recognize  as  the  severest  irony,  on 
my  part;  but  I  want  to  give  you  a  little  idea  of  the 
methods  employed  in  Wall  Street. 

The  suicides  which  follow  in  the  wake  of  stock 
market  manipulation  are  something  appalling,  and  not- 
withstanding the  efforts  of  certain  pious  Wall  Street 
magnates  to  throw  an  odor  of  sanctity  over  Wall 
Street  and  lead  the  public  to  believe  that  it  is  a  divine 
institution,  few  I  think  are  as  yet  convinced  that  driv- 
ing men  to  suicide  can  be  regarded  as  a  highly  moral 
occupation,  no  matter  how  indirect  the  methods  em- 
ployed, no  matter  how  religious  those  engaged  in  it,  or 
how  profitable  the  business. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


63 


XIII. 


HE  next  morning  the  newspapers  made  slight 


1  mention  of  the  old  merchants  death,  something 
as  follows:  "  Suicide  of  wealthy  country  merchant, 
while  temporarily  insane,  no  other  cause  known  for  the 
deed,  as  he  had  no  family  or  financial  troubles."  He 
was  not  of  much  account  anyway  in  a  great  city  like 
New  York ;  and  since  the  brokers  hushed  the  little  mat- 
ter up  as  much  as  possible  lest  it  might  hurt  business, 
this  is  the  last  that  the  public  ever  heard  about  the 
incident  —  and  Wall  Street  goes  on,  luring  in  more 
victims,  ruining  more  lives,  wrecking  more  homes, 
spreading  more  misery  and  driving  more  men  to  in- 
sanity and  death. 

Although  the  financial  kings  of  Wall  Street  already 
possess  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars,  although 
among  their  number  are  men,  whose  individual  wealth 
is  greater  than  the  assessed  valuation  of  some  whole 
States,  yet  so  great  is  their  sordid  greed  that  none  of 
them  hesitate  at  methods  of  this  kind  for  a  single  in- 
stant —  provided  they  can  clutch  more  money !  more 
money ! 

Xow  don 't  you  think  that  Wall  Street  speculation  is 
a  wicked  game,  a  gigantic  robbery,  rather  than  a  legiti- 
mate business,  and  don't  you  think  that  such  a  game 
ought  to  be  stopped? 


64 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


I  say  that  speculation  in  stocks  on  a  margin  should 
be  constituted  a  crime  under  the  law,  as  it  is  in  reality. 
It  fosters  a  ring  of  idle  gamblers,  parasites  upon 
society,  who  prey  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  honest  and 
industrious ;  such  people  are  a  menace  to  the  legitimate 
business  interests  of  the  country  and  an  element  of 
danger  to  the  republic. 

Petit  larceny  is  promptly  punished,  as  it  should  be  ; 
but  why  indorse  grand  larceny  and  let  the  big  thieves 
go  free?  We  must  confess  that  the  man  who  com- 
mits petit  larceny  generally  has  neither  influence  nor 
money,  and  that  when  this  fact  comes  to  light  the  vigor 
with  which  he  is  pounced  upon  is  truly  pitiful ;  we  must 
likewise  acknowledge  that  the  big  thieves  have  such 
fabulous  wealth  as  would  make  Croesus  feel  poor ;  but, 
notwithstanding  this,  under  what  code  of  morals  or 
under  what  true  system  of  jurisprudence  should  the 
petty  pilferers  be  punished,  and  the  wholesale  robbers 
allowed  to  fatten  and  flourish,  immune  from  restraint 
and  punishment  under  the  law? 

If  robbery  is  only  committed  on  a  scale  sufficiently 
grand  and  colossal,  the  majesty  of  the  law  is  appalled; 
if  a  few  smooth  Wall  Street  gentlemen  defraud  the 
public  out  of  their  honestly  acquired  wealth  and  take 
it  by  the  scores  of  millions,  Justice  stands  by  paralyzed 
and  helpless,  in  the  presence  of  a  crime  of  such  stu- 
pendous proportions,  as  to  be  outside  the  scope  and 
contemplation  of  the  law  —  but  with  what  heavy  hands 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


65 


she  lays  hold  of  the  man  who  steals  a  chicken!  For 
these  absurdities  and  inconsistencies,  in  our  jurispru- 
dence, let  us  hope  that  the  slow  growth  of  the  law  will 
ultimately  evolve  effectual  remedies. 

Members  of  Congress  and  of  other  legislative  bodies, 
as  well  as  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  if  in  league 
with  market  manipulators  and  speculating  in  Wall 
Street,  should  be  compelled  by  law  to  forfeit  the  office, 
which  they  thus  prostitute  to  private  gain.  The  specu- 
lating legislator  or  other  government  official  employs 
his  power,  not  for  the  welfare  of  his  constituency  or 
the  country  at  large,  but  merely  for  his  own  private 
pocket  and  without  the  slightest  regard  for  the 
peoples'  interests,  which  he  is  employed  to  protect. 
Such  are  Wall  Street's  statesmen  and  patriots,  of 
which  we  have  had  an  example  in  at  least  one  Presi- 
dent. 

Furthermore,  should  not  the  amount  of  wealth  which 
one  man  shall  be  allowed  to  roll  up,  under  some  un- 
usual advantage,  be  regulated  by  law,  and  the  dan- 
gerous and  disturbing  billionaire  rendered  impossible? 
There  is  of  course  a  difference  of  opinion  on  this  ques- 
tion, some  political  economists  maintaining  that  if  an 
individual  were  limited  in  his  acquisitions,  to  say  fifty 
million  dollars,  instead  of  to  a  possible  billion,  it  would 
work  complete  stagnation  and  paralysis  to  personal 
ambition  and  personal  enterprise.  I  would  not  assume 
5 


66 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


to  be  an  authority  on  this  point;  but  I  think  that  the 
consensus  of  opinion  is,  that  it  can  scarcely  be  safe 
for  one  man,  like  our  greatest  millionaire,  to  hold  so 
much  money  power  in  this  Republic,  that  all  the  rest 
of  the  financial  world  simply  does  not  dare  to  oppose 
him,  no  matter  how  predatory  or  piratical  his  ambi- 
tions; to  oppose  whom  means  absolute  ruin  and  an- 
nihilation; that  it  can  scarcely  be  consistent  with  the 
general  welfare  for  one  man  to  become  so  powerful 
that  he  may  own  Legislatures  and  benches  of  judges, 
and  even  presume  to  dictate  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States. 

What  other  influence  is  there,  in  this  country,  let  me 
ask,  that  is  breeding  with  so  great  rapidity,  the  lament- 
able spirit  of  socialism  and  anarchy? 

XIV. 

LET  us  return  now  for  a  moment  to  the  old  lady, 
the  merchant's  wife.  It  is  a  deplorable  fact,  that, 
when  the  head  of  a  household  is  ruined  financially,  Iris 
family,  through  no  fault  of  theirs,  must  often  suffer 
more  than  he.  I  will  not  attempt  to  depict  the  old 
lady 's  feelings  when  she  learned  the  true  situation  — 
a  widow  and  nearly  destitute  in  her  old  age. 

After  the  funeral  is  over,  she  tries  to  think  what  she 
can  do.  Her  home  even  was  sold,  for  that  was  a  part 
of  the  store  property  and  went  with  it.   Years  ago,  in 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


07 


the  distribution  of  her  father's  estate,  the  farm  which 
he  had  left  was  sold  and  the  proceeds  divided  among 
seven  or  eight  children,  and  she  had  received  from  that 
source  a  small  sum  of  money.  This  she  had  kept  on 
interest,  always  adding  the  increase  to  the  principal 
until  it  had  amounted  to  five  or  six  hundred  dollars. 
This  money,  heretofore  almost  forgotten,  is  now  her 
only  resource.  Out  of  it  she  paid  the  funeral  expenses 
and  then  took  what  remained  and  turned  it  over  to  an 
old  ladies'  home.  It  at  least  might  buy  her  a  place  to 
die. 

Upon  receiving  notice  of  her  admission  to  the  home, 
she  sets  out  for  the  place  where  she  is  to  pass  her 
last  sad  and  lonely  years.  Feebly  and  tearfully  she 
climbs  the  long  steps  and  presents  herself  at  the  office 
of  the  institution.  The  authorities  are  sorry  that  they 
can  give  her  no  better  accommodations;  but  it  is  the 
best  that  thev  can  do.  She  will  be  satisfied  with  anv- 
thing,  she  says;  then  she  follows  an  attendant  down  a 
long  oil-cloth  covered  hall,  up  two  flights  of  stairs,  down 
another  long  narrow  hall  to  room  67,  a  little  cell-like 
apartment,  with  one  north  window.  The  door  is  un- 
locked for  her.  she  steps  slowly  in  and  closes  it.  The 
room  is  furnished  with  two  chairs,  a  dresser  and  a 
white  cot  bed.  She  takes  off  her  cloak  and  lays  it  on  a 
chair,  puts  her  long  crepe  veil  thoughtfully  on  the 
dresser,  contemplates  the  bare  walls,  so  suggestive  of 
her  desolation,  then  falls  upon  her  knees  beside  her 


68 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


little  cot  and  sobs  the  hot  tears  of  loneliness  and 
despair. 

But  what  became  of  the  money  of  these  old  people  and 
that  of  others  who  lost  in  the  same  way?  Where  is  it? 
This  money  has  not  been  destroyed;  it  has  merely 
changed  hands,  without  an  equivalent  being  given.  But 
who  got  it?  I  will  tell  you.  Through  the  intricacies 
of  the  game,  this  money  has  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  great  capitalists  of  Wall  Street,  never  to  return  to 
those  who,  with  a  life-time  of  toil,  honestly  earned  it. 
What  will  become  of  it?  The  greater  portion  of  it, 
doubtless,  will  remain  in  the  strong  boxes  of  those 
whose  iron  grasp  now  holds  it.  But  let  us  throw  the 
most  favorable  light  possible  upon  the  situation.  As  it 
is  easy  to  be  generous  with  other  people's  money,  part 
of  this  old  merchant's  fortune,  together  with  a  tithe 
from  much  more  made  in  the  same  way,  may  sometime 
constitute  a  gift,  which  one  of  these  great  capitalists 
turns  over,  with  a  loud  report,  to  a  university  or  a 
theological  seminary  or  to  some  other  charity.  He 
hands  it  over,  as  a  sort  of  conscience  fund,  to  give  him 
a  fresh  start  in  more  Wall  Street  enterprise  of  the 
same  kind,  and  the  world  looks  on  and  says,  "  This  is 
indeed  true  charity,  God  bless  the  philanthropist!  " 

Perhaps,  that  very  night,  while  the  old  lady  was  sob- 
bing beside  her  little  cot,  the  fortune  which  she  and  her 
husband  had  toiled  so  long  and  hard  to  earn,  flashed  in 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


69 


a  tiara  of  diamonds  from  the  head  of  a  rich  broker's 
wife  at  the  opening  night  of  the  Metropolitan  Grand 
Opera  —  diamonds,  wondrously  beautiful,  dazzlingly 
brilliant,  crystalized  human  tears.  If  you  could  go 
around  that  row  of  parterre  boxes  and  write  the  his- 
tory of  all  those  pearls  and  all  those  rubies  and  all 
those  diamonds,  it  would  compose  a  tragedy  that  would 
make  your  heart  bleed. 

What  an  enchanting  scene  is  the  opening  night  of 
the  Metropolitan  Grand  Opera!  The  rarest  gems  of 
earth  dance  in  ten  thousand  lights;  beautiful  women, 
the  soft  perfume  of  exotic  flowers  and  the  voluptuous 
swell  of  grand  music  thrill  the  soul  —  verily,  ' '  the  cup 
runneth  over,"  and  all  hearts  seem  filled  with  every 
joy.  But  how  can  we  help  reflecting  upon  what  a  con- 
trast is  this  brilliant  scene  to  that  in  the  little  room  at 
the  old  ladies'  home  —  yet  what  do  these  people  care 
about  this  desolate  widow  and  their  thousands  of  other 
victims?  Absolutely  nothing  —  in  fact  their  victims, 
if  thought  of  at  all,  are  the  subject  of  sarcasm  and  jest ; 
they  are  the  4 '  lambs  that  got  fleeced." 

There  must  not  be  any  sentiment  in  business,  is  their 
doctrine  —  it  interferes.  If  you  would  make  millions, 
business  must  be  utterly  heartless,  utterly  heartless! 
Those  terse  aphorisms,  "  Business  is  business  "  and 
' 1  Do  others  or  they  will  do  you  ' '  receive  much  admi- 
ration here,  as  maxims  both  of  high  moral  worth  and  of 


70  WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 

great  practical  utility ;  but  such  sentiments  as  '  *  A  good 
name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches,  and 
loving  favor  rather  than  silver  and  gold,"  have  been 
crossed  out  and  labeled  "  back  numbers  "  and  "  no 
good  in  Wall  Street." 

If  there  is  any  doctrine  which  this  class  of  people 
dotes  on,  it  is  that  of  "  the  survival  of  the  fittest."  Ap- 
plicable as  this  doctrine  is,  in  the  world  of  strife,  its 
application  here  seems  somewhat  perverted  and  para- 
doxical since^  in  Wall  Street,  the  most  consummate 
trickster  and  the  most  heartless  scoundrel  with  the  big- 
gest pile  of  dollars  is  the  fittest  and  he  is  the  one  who 
does  the  surviving.  And  then  the  following  is  much  re- 
lied on,  in  justification  of  Wall  Street  methods :  '  '  For 
whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have 
more  abundance:  but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him 
shall  be  taken  away,  even  that  he  hath. ' '  This  passage, 
of  course,  refers  to  the  acquisition  of  more  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  as  the  theologians  tell  us ;  but  the  money 
kings  of  W^all  Street  like  to  give  its  interpretation  a  lit- 
tle twist  in  their  favor,  and  sav  that  it  refers  to  the  ac- 

7  v 

quisition  of  more  greenbacks,  by  the  big  fellows  from 
the  little  ones.  In  fact,  this  class  of  people  appear  to 
hold  the  opinion  that  if  they  would  succeed  in  anything 
questionable  or  crooked,  there  is  nothing  like  misin- 
terpreting the  Scriptures  their  own  way,  so  as  to  ap- 
parently justify  them  in  their  rascality  before  the 
public. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES.  71 

This  is  a  little  of  Wall  Street  theology  and  Wall 
Street  business  ethics.  Do  you  wonder  that  such  the- 
ologians could  insert  about  eight  hundred  million  dol- 
lars of  wind  into  the  United  States  Steel  Trust  and 
something  like  forty  million  dollars  more  into  the 
United  States  Shipbuilding  Trust,  and  then  sell  it  to  the 
public  without  a  twinge? 

Coming  from  W^all  Street,  I  hope  that  I  shall  not 
be  misunderstood  as  proselyting  for  this  kind  of  a 
creed  —  far  from  it  —  nor  for  any  particular  creed, 
being  engaged  in  legal  instead  of  evangelistic  work. 
I  thought,  nevertheless,  that  I  should  merely  touch 
upon  the  convenient  theology  and  ethics  of  Wall 
Street,  as  well  as  upon  its  other  phases,  especially 
since  those,  who  have  made  the  most  conspicuous  suc- 
cesses here  have  been  particular  to  pose  before  the 
public  as  eminent  churchmen.  The  connection  of  such 
men  with  churches,  however,  has  done  more  to  spread 
infidelity  and  cast  reflection  and  ridicule  upon  the  good 
cause  of  the  church  than  almost  anything  else. 

The  success  of  this  class  of  gamblers  has  an  influence 
for  evil  upon  the  business  world  that  is  little  realized, 
success  through  their  methods  being  a  contradiction  to 
the  good  old  business  maxim  that  "  Honesty  is  the 
best  policy  "  and  a  travesty  upon  it.  The  moral  law 
seems  perverted  here.  Wrong  appears  right  and  right 
wrong.   Young  men  look  down  from  the  galleries  and 


72 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


far  off  corners  of  that  great  Opera  House  and  say, 
' '  If  you  would  make  millions,  that  is  the  way,  specu- 
lation, gambling,  rascality,  anything  but  honest  work. 
The  rascal  is  exalted  and  his  victim  disgraced. ' ' 

Since  these  great  Wall  Street  magnates  are  con- 
tinually kept  before  the  public,  as  shining  examples  of 
success  for  the  youth  to  emulate,  is  it  any  wonder  that 
the  business  world  is  becoming  more  and  more  shrewd, 
dishonest  and  unscrupulous?  The  young  man  says  to 
himself,  when  imitating  the  great  financiers  and  capi- 
talists of  our  day,  ' '  Can  I  be  sufficiently  dishonest  and 
at  the  same  time  sufficiently  pious  to  succeed  in  life; 
can  I  be  just  dishonest  enough  to  graze  State  prison, 
but  at  the  same  time  keep  out  through  bribery,  perjury 
and  hypocrisy  ? ' ' 

The  effect  of  this  influence  crops  out  in  all  kinds  of 
so-called  "  hot  air  "  and  "  get  rich  quick  "  swindles, 
520  per  cent.  Miller  games,  discretionary  pool  frauds, 
turf  investment  companies,  etc.,  etc.,  which  relieve  the 
confiding  public  of  anywhere  from  ten  to  twenty 
millions  of  cold  cash  at  one  sweep. 

XV. 

HP  HE  experience  of  this  Connecticut  merchant,  which 
*  I  have  given  you,  is  only  one  little  case  among 
thousands.    Think  of  the  misery,  think  of  the  tears, 
think  of  the  disgrace  and  remorse  which  the  tremen- 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TEAGEDIES.  7o 

dous  losses  of  the  public  to  these  Wall  Street  sharpers, 
year  after  year,  certainly  entails.  Who  can  realize  it? 

The  massive  iron  doors  of  State  prison  clank  behind 
a  man,  from  some  responsible  and  trusted  position  of 
business  life ;  in  an  hour  of  temptation,  he  was  drawn 
into  Wall  Street  speculation,  with  trust  funds.  He 
lost.  The  court  and  jury  say  he  is  guilty  of  grand 
larceny.  He  has  lost  the  money  bequeathed  into  his 
charge  by  a  father,  for  the  support  and  education  of 
several  young  children.  They  are  now  left  destitute. 
When  he  reflects  upon  what  he  has  done,  through  this 
alone  as  punishment,  ^e  suffers  all  the  torments  of  the 
damned;  but  in  addition  to  this,  he  must  go  to  prison 
and  wear  the  stripes,  for  ten  long  weary  years.  Dazed, 
thev  lead  him  from  the  courtroom,  all  he  hears  is  the 
heart  breaks  of  his  wife  and  innocent  children,  dis- 
graced by  him  forever.  Into  a  solitude  worse  than 
death  thev  lead  him  and  clank  behind  the  doors  of  his 
eternal  doom. 

Such  is  his  fate;  but  what  about  the  Wall  Street 
sharpers  who  drew  him  into  this  trouble  and  who  now 
have  the  money  of  these  children,  safely  deposited,  to 
their  already  stupendous  bank  accounts  —  what  about 
them?  Oh,  they  are  all  right;  they  pose  as  financiers, 
great  "  captains  of  industry/ '  and  as  men  of  remark- 
able genius  in  the  business  world. 

The  general  public  do  not  understand  and  the  people 


74 


WALL  STREET  SPECULATION. 


who  acquire  their  wealth  in  this  manner  take  every 
precaution  possible  that  the  public  shall  not  under- 
stand ;  sometimes  they  endow  churches  and  teach  Bible 
classes,  as  a  blind,  or  pass  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  at  the  celebration  of  Holy  Communion. 

This  renders  their  course  of  crime  easy  and  profit- 
able and  enables  them  at  the  same  time  to  be  looked 
upon  by  those  who  do  not  know  them  and  their  meth- 
ods as  highly  respected  citizens  and  Christian  gentle- 
men; but  notwithstanding  what  their  appearance  may 
be  before  the  public,  I  have  often  wondered,  when  they 
are  teaching  Sunday  school  and  passing  the  Sacra- 
ment, what  kind  of  an  appearance  they  are  making 
before  God,  the  God  of  love  for  all  mankind,  the  God 
of  the  fatherless. 

The  church  is  a  strong  fortress  behind  which  such 
high  up  rascals  like  to  intrench  themselves,  in  whom 
the  church  is  deceived  and  for  whose  membership, 
therefore,  it  is  not  responsible,  unless  the  church  know- 
ingly fosters  such  people  and  contends  for  them,  as  is 
sometimes  the  case,  because  they  always  pay  heavily 
for  their  protection.  They  can  afford  to;  there  is 
money  in  it. 


0  much  for  Wall  Street  and  its  woes,  its  tricks  and 


^  its  tragedies,  its  heartlessness  and  its  hypocrisy ; 
and  now  will  you  permit  me  to  give  a  word  of  advice? 


XVI. 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES. 


75 


If  you  are  inexperienced  in  Wall  Street  methods  and 
contemplate  going  into  that  maelstrom  of  speculation, 
take  your  money,  five,  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  thousand 
dollars  or  whatever  you  may  anticipate  venturing  with, 
have  it  all  stacked  up  in  nice  new  bills,  put  it  into  your 
grip  and  go  right  direct  with  it  to  some  of  the  great 
AVall  Street  financiers,  and  say  "  Here,  Mister,  is  my 
$30,000,  in  good  money;  it  is  a  large  share  of  what  I 
possess,  but  it  is  yours  now,  take  it  quick.  I  thought 
of  using  it  as  margin  in  Wall  Street  speculation,  but  I 
have  concluded  that  you  will  get  it  anyway  in  the  end, 
and  you  can  have  it  now;  you  might  just  as  well  take 
it  first  as  last,  and  a  great  deal  better ;  it  will  save  me 
much  time  and  worry,  many  a  wrinkle  and  many  a  grey 
hair  and  I  will  go  right  back  home  and  give  my  atten- 
tion to  my  business,  before  it  is  ruined,  for  I  can't  keep 
my  mind  on  Wall  Street  and  on  my  business  too." 

To  hand  over  money  in  that  prodigal  manner  may 
seem,  on  first  consideration,  manifestly  rash  and  fool- 
ish ;  but  if  you  must  do  either  the  one  or  the  other,  go 
into  Wall  Street  speculation  or  hand  the  money  over, 
the  latter  is  altogether  the  better  course.  It  will  save 
burning  out  your  soul  in  the  protracted  fires  of  sus- 
pense, anxiety  and  worry;  it  will  save  your  health;  it 
will  save  you  from  shattered  nerves  and  from  shat- 
tered brain;  it  will  save  you  from  a  physical  and 
mental  condition  incapacitated  for  honest  business  or 


76 


WALL  STEEET  SPECULATION. 


professional  life;  it  will  save  losing  faith  in  your  fel- 
low man,  and  in  your  God. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  glamor  about  the  possibility  of 
making  a  hundred  dollars  in  a  minute,  but  that  possibil- 
ity is  the  siren's  silver  voice,  that  will  likely  lure  you 
on  to  the  rocks  of  ruin. 

One  would  almost  think  that  King  Solomon  must 
have  had  some  experience  in  Wall  Street  speculation 
and  then  sat  down  and  wrote  in  his  proverbs  as 
follows :  i '  He  that  hasteneth  to  be  rich  hath  an  evil 
eye,  and  considereth  not  that  poverty  shall  come  upon 
him. ' '  If  young  men  will  take  that  advice,  keep  out  of 
Wall  Street  that  "  hasteneth  to  be  rich,"  and  go  to 
work  at  something  honest  and  useful  and  stick  to  it, 
they  will  be  successful  and  happy  and  i '  poverty  shall 
not  come  upon  them." 

He  who  aspires  to  go  through  this  life  the  easiest 
is  almost  sure  to  go  through  the  hardest  and  finally 
come  to  a  wretched  and  abandoned  old  age.  What  a 
contrast  between  the  old  age  of  the  man  who  brings  to 
the  evening  of  life  the  fruits  of  honest  industry  and 
the  satisfaction  of  life-long  usefulness  to  his  fellow 
men,  and  the  old  age  of  the  insane  gambler  who  brings 
in  his  bony,  trembling  hands  nothing  but  the  semblance 
of  a  wasted  life. 

Will  you  picture  to  yourself  a  deep  and  dark  can- 
yon; below  are  jagged  rocks  and  a  great  river  ;  1,000 


ITS  TRICKS  AND  ITS  TRAGEDIES.  14 

feet  above,  the  brow  of  the  canyon  projects  over  the 
rocks  and  the  river.  Not  far  from  the  edge  of  this 
precipice  a  man  stands ;  he  is  blindfolded  and  groping 
in  the  darkness.  He  does  not  realize  his  danger  —  the 
river  is  so  far  below  that  he  cannot  hear  it.  He  may 
wander  away  from  this  yawning  chasm,  but  not  likely; 
and  even  if  he  would,  an  enemy  in  whose  power  he  is 
stands  close  by,  watching  to  turn  him  in  the  opposite 
direction.  Moreover,  the  slippery  rock  beneath  his 
feet  slopes  toward  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  and  blind- 
folded, he  naturally  will  drift  in  the  course  of  the  least 
resistance.  Nearer  and  nearer,  he  gropes  toward  the 
edge.  Now  we  see  him  stand  on  the  very  brink.  One 
more  step,  whispers  his  enemy,  and  you  are  safe.  He 
takes  it  —  when  down,  down,  down  to  death  and  de- 
struction he  plunges  upon  the  sharp  and  jagged  rocks, 
below. 

This  is  the  position  of  the  speculator  in  Wall  Street. 
Can  you  afford  to  take  the  chances  of  that  perilous 
position?  If  so,  then  to  Wall  Street,  with  money, 
mind,  body  and  soul,  and  there  take  your  chance  on 
life  and  death,  your  chance  on  Heaven  and  Hell. 


I 


J 


